


The Abyss

by RinKim



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - High School, Drowning, Fantasy, High School, M/M, Mermaid!Levi, Phobias, Slow Build, ereri, merman, riren - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-04
Updated: 2015-09-20
Packaged: 2018-02-24 02:41:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 38,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2565314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RinKim/pseuds/RinKim
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren is living a hell of a life... He is a nineteen year old virgin, living alone with his adoptive sister since his father is never home and his mom has passed away. Though his grades are extraordinary, he is still close to dropping out of school because of his increasing absence - hence, Principal Erwin Smith gives him one more chance: Eren Jaeger has to take extra classes in Marine Biology in order to graduate next year.<br/>Eren accepts the conditions.<br/>However, when Eren has to clean the school's outdoor swimming pool after a severe flooding, he didn't count on a pair of dark eyes, belonging to a creature with scaly skin, dark hair and a ripped chest, staring directly back at him.<br/>Eren definitely didn't count on finding a merman in the swimming pool...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Eren's Punishment

**Author's Note:**

> This is my very first fanfiction on AO3, I hope you'll enjoy it!  
> I don't know how often I'll get to update, but I hope it'll be frequently, if my editors got the time, that is...  
> Enjoy~!

He sat back in the rather comfortable chair in front of the large, dark, wooden desk. There was complete silence in the whole room, except for the ticking of the grandfather clock at the other end of the office. He shifted nervously in his seat, planting his sweaty palms in his lap as he continued to wait impatiently for someone to arrive. He had been called to this office for a reason, after all. He knew that he would have been called to this office sooner or later, but he had no idea that it would be so nerve wracking.

His eyes gazed over the hazel walls. The wallpaper was nearly invisible from all the framed pictures and paintings hanging over it. Pictures of students who had graduated long ago, their pictures being black and white because of the lack of technology back in those days. The paintings in the room, however, were all in golden frames, showing portraits of former school principals, like the one he was about to have a chat with.

Yes, he was sitting in the principal’s office.

No, it wasn’t the first time he had found himself in this position. He had often been sent here because of his endless fighting.

Hell, even the secretary knew him quite well. Petra Ral was her name.

His heart nearly skipped a beat as the door to the office finally opened and the school principal stepped inside. The man’s bright blue eyes were like glue to the papers in his hands as he made his way to the chair behind the desk; he didn’t even give the boy at the other side a glare just yet. He was too focused on whatever was on those papers of his.

“So, Eren Jaeger…” the man finally spoke up, making the boy tense slightly in his chair. The principal had finally put the papers down on his desk, and folded his hands while he looked at the boy. “I believe that this isn’t our first meeting, is that correct?”

“Y-… Yes, sir,” Eren managed to stutter through his nervousness. He was honestly scared, though it was his own fault for being called to the office. He knew very well why he was here, though he didn’t want to completely admit his mistake.

“The Ministry of Education has contacted me. You know that they follow all the top schools closely, right?” the principal started, his charismatic eyes not leaving Eren’s, though the boy wasn’t able to keep the eye contact. His eyes were looking everywhere but at the principal. He looked at the desk, his eyes catching the sight of the golden name tag standing proudly on the corner.

_Erwin Smith, School Principal._

“I am well aware, sir.” Eren muttered quietly.

“It has come to my attention that you have been skipping classes a lot lately.” Mr. Smith continued as he took one of the papers from his desk and studied it quickly. “In fact, you’ve been so absent that you wont be able to graduate next year, which is a shame.”

“Yes, sir.” Eren said, admitting utter defeat. He was afraid of speaking too much and getting into trouble.

“What do you have to say in your defense, Eren?” Mr. Smith asked, leaning back in his chair. Eren gulped silently as he felt the man’s eyes on him. His voice was calming yet serious in such a way that he was sure that it was able to cure cancer and end world wars. Eren slowly started to understand why the girls in his class had called the principal “Principal Handsome”…

“Well, sir, I really don’t want to drop out of school!” Eren started as he clenched his hands in his lap. “The main reason that I’ve been so absent from school is that… I find my classes rather boring, I guess…”

“So you mean that learning is boring?” Mr. Smith asked, raising one of his thick eyebrows at the boy.

“No, sir.” Eren said quickly, letting out a small sigh. “It’s boring because… I never really learn anything new.” He hesitated a bit before he moved his eyes to meet the man’s, his honesty shining in them. Eren knew quite a lot about everything, since his father used to teach him and his adoptive sister different subjects from different studies. His father was a well-known professor in medicine, though he was rarely home to see his children - in fact he hadn’t been home for about two years by now, which left Eren alone with his adoptive sister, who was even smarter than him.

“I see,” Mr. Smith said with a sigh. “Your records show that test results are always at the top, which is the reason why we haven’t called you to the office sooner. You know that in order to stay at this school, your absence has to be less than ten percent. If your absence exceeds this, then you’ll get a warning unless your grades are on point, of course…”

“Yes, I am aware of that, sir.”

Eren knew that his good grades were his saving grace right now.. His absence had long exceeded ten percent - it was almost at twenty percent, now. If his grades weren’t what they were, he would have been expelled a long time ago.

“I’m afraid to tell you this, but with your attendance the way it is, you’ll have to repeat this year of school.” Mr. Smith said, the seriousness that is expected of a principal still being absent in his tone.

Eren could feelhis heart jump up in his throat. He didn’t want to repeat a whole year of school, even if it WAS his own fault for finding computer games and fighting more entertaining than studying. His adoptive sister had often mocked him about it, though he never really listened.

Maybe he should have listened to her, though… Because now he was in trouble - not that he hadn’t seen it coming.

“I’m… I’m really sorry, sir.” Eren said, his hands starting to shake a little in his lap. He knew that he would be a disgrace to his father, one of the smartest people in the country, if he had to repeat a year. “I… I really don’t wish to bring shame to my father’s name, and I really don’t wish to make my mother turn in her grave, so please…” The boy didn’t really know what he was saying. He sounded rather pathetic, he thought, bringing up his father who he rarely saw these days, and his dead mother, who died when he was just a little kid.

Mr. Smith cleared his throat as he adjusted his bolo tie, making Eren freeze in his seat.

“There is one way that this school might let you stay.” Mr. Smith began.

“A-Anything, sir! I’ll do anything!” Eren nearly exclaimed as hope lit up his greenish eyes.

“You’ll have to take an extra class, and not skip it one single time.”

“Alright! I… I can do that!” Eren quickly said. “What subject should the class be? Handball? Architecture? Art class, perhaps?”

“Marine biology.”

“… E-Excuse me?”

“You heard me,” Mr. Smith stated. “Marine biology. One of the studies that this school used to be well-known for.”

“U… Understood, principal Handso-… I mean, principal Smith.” Eren quickly corrected himself as a faint blush of embarrassment crept onto his cheeks. He clumsily stood up from the chair and headed for the door.

“Be sure not to skip a single class, Eren!” Mr. Smith warned the boy who bowed slightly to him in respect.

“Thank you very much, sir!” Eren said before almost darting out of the office, leaving the principal with a rather amused grin on his lips. He laughed ever so slightly, well aware of the nickname the students had given him.

“Principal Handome...” He put his hands behind his head and his feet on the desk. ”I could get used to that.”

 

—————————————————————————

 

A quiet groan left Eren’s throat as he had seated himself in the cafeteria, his face hidden in his hands. He honestly just felt like throwing his tray of food across the hall, not giving a fuck if he hit someone - it would probably just make him slightly happier. Especially if that someone was Jean Kirschtein, the very same guy from his literature class that he always got into fights with.

It wasn’t Eren’s fault that Jean’s face looked like one of a horse - Eren was just brave enough to point it out from time to time.

“Eren, you should pull yourself together.” said a girl as she sat down next to the frustrated boy. Eren looked up only to meet the sight of his adoptive sister with her usual stone face.

“Did you get expelled?” Armin asked as he sat down opposite Eren, putting his tray of lunch down. Armin was Eren’s best friend - how it happened, no one knew. Armin was quite the nerd, loving science and learning. In fact he even spent the most of his time reading and studying things that they weren’t even meant to learn yet. He had once gotten scolded by a teacher for having finished a whole book about outer space even before we were told to read the first page.

“No, I didn’t get expelled.” Eren muttered as he rolled his eyes at the blonde. Soon, the rest of their friends had gathered at the table, though the company didn’t exactly help Eren’s mood. The boy just stared at his lunch while poking it with his fork.

“Exactly what were you told?” Mikasa asked once again while she shoved food into her mouth. Eren had to admire her just a little bit for being able to eat the food they served in this dump.

“Ugh...” Eren groaned loudly as he almost pulled out his hair. “I was told to take an extra class in order to graduate.” Eren nearly hissed as he decided to bump his head against the table again - this time in shame.

“What kind of class?” Mikasa kept going, Armin watching them both as they spoke, not really being able to come with much input on his own. Indeed, it was all Eren’s own fault for skipping school too much.

“Marine biology.” Eren muttered against the sticky, cold surface. “Why not just drag me through hell and back again…?”

“Hey!” Armin suddenly spoke up, feeling slightly offended at Eren’s words. “Marine biology is an interesting subject! Did you know that ninety percent of the ocean is still unknown and untouched by mankind?”

“No, I didn’t know that.” Eren groaned. “I didn’t know that, because marine biology is one of those things that I don’t give a shit about!”

“Eren!” Mikasa growled at him, planting a hard, solid elbow in his side which made him cringe in pain.

“Ow!”

Armin watched the two of them, a slightly hurt expression on his face, though he knew that Eren didn’t mean it personally. He was probably just upset about the fact that he had to take an extra class. Eren enjoyed a lot of things, including movies, video games, fighting and sports. In fact, he was one of the most athletic students, though he might not look much like it. He was already on the volleyball team, basketball team, and he was a shoe-in for becoming the captain of the football team next year. The only person who outdid him when it came to sport was Reiner Braun, the current captain of the football team and the basketball team.

“Hey, Armin?” Eren asked as he was still rubbing his side to soothe the pain from Mikasa’s elbow.

“Yeah?”

“Who’s in the marine biology class, anyway?” the frustrated brown haired boy asked. Armin’s facial expression quickly changed, showing clear embarrassment and hesitation in his features.

“W-we’re only two students in the whole class.” he muttered quietly. “It’s just me and Marco; you know, the guy from the basketball team.”

“Eh?” Eren said, his eyes slightly wide in confusion. “How come you’re able to be just two students? Usually a class has to consist of at least eight students in order to be created.”

Armin shrugged at him. “I guess it’s because this school used to be well known for its wide knowledge in marine biology, though that was years ago…”

Thinking about Armin’s words, Eren remembered the principal having said something like that. He had no idea that the school used to be known for something like marine biology, even though the school had quite a large building on its property only built for the sake of marine biology. The school was just about a hundred meters from the beach, giving the biologists easy access to the ocean in their studies.

No one but the marine biology students were allowed inside the building, though.

Soon the usual people had gathered at the table, and everyone did their best at enjoying their lunch. Jean, the guy Eren usually fought with, had joined them as well, which was quite normal. Even if Eren and Jean fought a lot, they had their tiny moments of NOT fighting, though those moments were incredibly rare. Eren wasn’t exactly strong, but he wasn’t a pipsqueak either; and he could take Jean on, and usually won their fights, too.

The whole fighting between the two actually began during their first year of high school, when Jean was crushing madly on Mikasa, pretty much doing anything just to make her look at him or speak a single word to him. As Mikasa’s brother, Eren didn’t like the thought of her dating some guy he didn’t know, so he kind of wanted to confront the slightly taller male… And that was the first time they ever fought, and it just kept getting worse from there, even though Jean had stopped trying to flirt with Mikasa…

“Eren, I’m sure you’ll like marine biology! Professor Hanji said something about arranging a trip so we could go to swim with dolphins just before the end of the school year!” Armin said, beaming with excitement as he spoke. Mikasa smiled at the blond boy, and Jean actually had to admit that he was a little bit jealous. Swimming with dolphins must be quite the experience.

“Oh, I see.” Eren muttered quietly as he felt a small shiver run down his spine. “That sounds… Interesting, Armin.” The brunette forced a small smile in Armin’s direction but then just as quickly lowered his eyes to his food once again.

His heart was still caught in his throat, beating painfully as a small amount of adrenaline ran through his veins.

 

_“Dad! Mom!”_

_A loud boom sounded from above where the dark clouds gathered, sending lightning in every direction. The waves around the small boy caught in the wild water kept getting higher. He couldn’t see the beach anymore, and he felt the ocean pulling at his small legs. He was starting to grow tired, signalling that his struggle in the water was coming to an end._

_”Dad! Mom! Help!” He tried to yell again, but his words were followed by wild coughing as his lungs were filled with salt water. Tears were running down his red cheeks as he was pulled under the water and down in the deep._

 

“Oi, Eren!” Mikasa said, earning a shocked gasp in return as Eren woke up from his daydreaming. His heart was still pounding rapidly in his chest, and it took a few seconds before he noticed that he was able to breathe and wasn’t drowning. He managed to hold back his urge to gasp for air, not wanting anyone at the table to notice his strange behavior.

“I-I’m alright,” he managed to choke out, faking a small grin to Mikasa. “I guess I just dozed off for a few seconds there.”

“Just be careful not to do that in class. Keith Shadis will have your head on a silver plate if you even dare.” Armin muttered.

“Don’t remind me; it happened once and I definitely don’t want to go down that road ever again.” Eren muttered as he felt himself shiver just at the thought of their strict math teacher throwing daggers at him with his glare.

If eyes could kill, Eren would have been murdered a hundred times by now, at least.

The bell rang, and everyone slowly got up from their seats and left. The next class would soon start, and no matter how little Eren wanted to attend it, he knew that he couldn’t skip classes anymore - not after the warning principal Smith had given him.

The fact that he had to join the marine biology class was enough punishment for him.


	2. Marine Biology Class

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren is introduced to the marine biology class...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to my amazing (and fast!) editor, Ann! <3

_Beep! Beep!_

Armin inserted his admission card into the small box next to the white doors leading to the marine biology building. The doors slid open, revealing what was inside.

Eren walked next to Armin as they both entered the building. Eren’s eyes were wide in excitement as he looked around since he had never been allowed inside this building before. In fact, only those few who studied marine biology were allowed inside, which was quite cool, and it was suddenly very clear that marine biology got a bigger part of the school’s budget than any of the other studies.

The building was huge, with the ceiling consisting of solar cells far above the students’ heads. There were close to no windows in the whole building since the walls mostly were covered by huge aquariums with different kinds of rare species of fish. The design of the building looked quite expensive, too. Pretty much everything inside was white, apart from a few things that were made of metal or steel. The building was very technological, too. Armin told Eren how all the fish were fed by timed machines, and all of these things slowly made Eren wonder how come this study was so unpopular. 

However, his question was soon to be answered. 

As the two boys walked down the big, white hallways - with hundred of different fish staring at them from their aquariums to both sides - they were soon met by a woman in a white lab coat. She had her brown hair pulled back in a ponytail and wore a pair of glasses. She flashed Armin a wide smile though it quickly disappeared as she eyed Eren suspiciously before turning back to Armin. 

“Armin, don’t you know that only marine biology students are allowed in here?” she asked, a small hint of confusion and even disappointment in her voice as she spoke, “He doesn’t have an admission card to this facility.”

“Ah, but professor,” Armin quickly said, “He is starting his studies in marine biology today, though it’s quite strange since we’re in the middle of a subject…” 

“Oh? He’s starting today?” the woman, who turned out to be their teacher, said. Eren could read from the name tag on her coat that her name was Hanji Zöe, professor in marine biology. 

“Y-Yeah,” Armin stuttered slightly. 

“Oooh!! I remember!” the woman suddenly exclaimed, nearly making the two boys jump back in surprise, “I remember now! Erwin did mention something about this! Though I have to admit that I wasn’t quite paying attention since his eyebrows distracted me… They’re quite thick, you know.” 

The woman in front of Armin and Eren almost beamed with energy and spirit - something none of Eren’s other teachers showed any signs of. Especially not Keith Shadis… 

“So, there’s no problem?” Eren asked, interrupting Hanji’s small speech about Erwin’s eyebrows, “I… honestly don’t want to repeat this year of high school…” 

“No! No there’s no problem at all!” Hanji said with excitement as she took Eren’s hand and shook it rapidly in both of her own, making the boy believe that his arm would be ripped off at some point, “Welcome to the marine biology class! I’ll be your teacher, Professor Hanji Zöe, but you can just call me Hanji, or professor, or whatever floats your boat! But calling me ‘Babe’ will NOT have any positive effect on your grades.” 

“U-… Understood,” Eren said as he pulled his hand away from the thrilled woman, rubbing the sore palm to ease the pain from her rough handshake. 

“The more the merrier!” Hanji hummed happily, “I’ll be looking forward to this! What’s your name?”

“Eren… Eren Jaeger,” Eren said with a confident smile. Hanji’s glasses nearly sparkled in the light from the hundreds of lamps in the ceiling.

“Eren Jaeger, interesting! German, I assume? Oh, I should probably make sure that you get a spot for our expedition next week then!”

“Expedition?” Eren asked, looking at the slightly taller female whose eyes lit up in excitement. 

“Ah! Yes! Our current subject is the history of infamous sea monsters! In other words, cryptozoology! So I planned a small trip to a museum about an hour away from here, which currently has an exhibition of proof of different sea monsters’ existence!” Her lips turned into a wide grin, “I’m sure we will see some exciting things about Loch Ness or Kraken… Maybe even some sea serpents if we’re lucky!” There was definitely something about this woman that didn’t seem to be completely normal. She looked like someone who might be somewhere between twenty five and thirty years old, but she definitely didn’t act her age - not that Eren would complain, he was still finding Keith Shadis, his math teacher, pretty scary. 

“Oh, that…actually sounds surprisingly interesting,” Eren admitted, “N-Not that I thought your classes would be boring, professor!” 

Eren could almost hear Armin roll his eyes at his obvious lie. 

“I like your enthusiasm! So, what’s your favorite sea monster? Eh?” Hanji started asking, but she got interrupted as Armin cleared his throat. The two brunettes almost having forgotten about him. 

“Professor Hanji, shouldn’t we get to the classroom? Marco might probably already be waiting for our arrival,” the blond boy said with a weak smile, “No offense…” 

“Ah, of course,” Hanji said as she adjusted her glasses, “We can’t let him or his freckles wait. Let’s get to the classroom!

Professor Hanji turned around on her heel before she marched off towards their classroom, which was somewhere in this huge building. Eren and Armin followed behind, while the brunette took his time in admiring the many different aquariums on the way. There were everything from koi fish and huge crabs, to octopuses and sea turtles. There were, however, also huge, empty aquariums, which Eren didn’t know what were used for - probably larger sea animals, but he guessed that they weren’t here permanently… Eren slowly started to understand how this school used to be well-known for its marine biology, because this was quite amazing and he hadn’t even seen everything yet. 

“It’s good to see that you’re already here, Marco,” Hanji hummed as she entered the classroom in which Marco had positioned himself somewhere in the front. He greeted the three people with a kind smile, though he still looked quite surprised to see Eren - someone he knew from the basketball team - in the class for marine biology. 

Eren almost walked into the door frame on his way into the classroom because he was too focused on the aquariums in the hallway. 

Armin and Eren sat down next to Marco, Armin in the middle. Eren let a deep sigh leave his lips while he looked around the classroom, which was way too big for only three students. The walls were filled with drawings and graphs, showing the details and statistics for certain species of fish and seaweed. Eren was stuck in this class until he graduated, and he disliked the thought, because he literally knew nothing about marine biology, and it just didn’t really interest him - maybe apart from the sea monsters. 

“I could be gaming League of Legends right now,” Eren muttered quietly for himself as he rested his head against his hand, another sigh leaving his lips. 

“So,” Hanji cleared her throat, “Since Eren doesn’t have a book yet… Armin, can you share yours with him, so he wont be left out of the teaching?” 

“Yes, professor!” Armin quickly said before he moved closer to Eren and pushed his book about cryptozoology a bit closer to the brunette so he could see. 

“Thanks,” Eren mumbled. 

“We’re about halfway through this subject about sea monsters,” professor Hanji started with a wide smile on her lips, “We’ve finished the last chapter about sea serpents last time, as well as the chapters about Kraken and Loch Ness, so I would like to know which sea monster, or mysterious sea creature, you would like to know more about. It’ll be the last, so think well.” Her eyes were resting on Eren, for some odd reason. 

The three students exchanged glares, searching each other’s eyes for suggestions, though Marco and Armin probably knew that Eren wouldn’t be of much help. Hell, the brunette didn’t even know about a single sea monster, apart from Kraken. 

“Eren, do you know any sea monsters?” Hanji asked as she sat down on her desk with her arms crossed over her chest, “Just out of curiosity.” 

“Uh,” Eren started, moving his eyes carefully to meet the woman’s, “I’m sorry, professor Hanji, but… I don’t know any sea monsters apart from Kraken, and that’s just because I’ve watched Pirates of the Caribbean.” Eren admitted utterly defeat as he hung his head a bit low. Maybe he knew a lot about different things, but sea monsters were not a part of those things. 

“Ah, I see,” Hanji let out a small laugh, “Guess there’s still a long way to go, huh?” 

“Sorry…” Eren muttered. 

“Aren’t there mermaids in Pirates of the Caribbean, though?” the professor said as she raised one of her eyebrows and got off her desk. “The fourth movie, is it?” 

“I have only watched the first two,” Eren quickly said, “But… Mermaids, professor? I wouldn’t really call them sea monsters…” Eren suddenly swore that he could hear a faint laugh from the professor.

“Aaah, I think we’ve found the last sea monster to concern ourselves with,” Hanji almost sang as she dashed towards the blackboard, a piece of chalk dramatically in her hand. 

“But, professor,” Eren muttered quietly, “Mermaids aren’t real, just like fairy tales aren’t real…” Eren knew that Kraken, Loch Ness and sea serpents weren’t exactly real either, but there was a bigger possibility of those being real than some girls with fish tails as legs, swimming around somewhere in the ocean. Singing about how they would wish so have human legs…

“Ooh?” Hanji looked at Eren over her shoulder, a smirk on her lips, “Have you explored the remaining ninety percent of the ocean, Eren Jaeger?” Her words made Eren gulp just slightly as he shut up and leaned back a bit. He didn’t believe his own ears, that a professor in marine biology didn’t deny the existence of mermaids… Mermaids were fairy tale creatures, nothing more than that. 

At least that’s what Eren believed. 

“Apparently,” Hanji said as soon as she had scribbled down the new heading on the blackboard, “There aren’t many records of mermaids in these times, so we’ll have to dig far back in our history books.”

“Or just read The Little Mermaid by H.C. Andersen…” Eren mumbled as he rolled his eyes, feeling quite dumb to be in this class.

“H.C. Andersen’s version of a mermaid is quite wrong,” Armin said as he looked at his best friend. Eren gulped quietly, having forgotten for a second that Armin had moved closer to him and could hear pretty much everything he said. 

“I-… I didn’t mean it like that, but really, Armin,” Eren sighed deeply, “Mermaids?”

“Mermaids, or sirens, are well known for luring men with their voices,” Armin said, and Eren quickly knew that he didn’t wish to start a discussion with Armin, because this was clearly something Armin knew more about than he did. 

“Didn’t they lure them down into the abyss to devour them?” Marco said as he scratched the back of his head while he thought it over, “At least that’s what have been told in folklores all over the world…”

“See! That’s the interesting part!” Hanji exclaimed, her eyes sparkling with excitement once again as she slammed her palms onto her desk, nearly making the three boys in front of her fall off their chairs. “Hundreds of years ago, the contact between different countries and different continents was very limited, so how come that there’s stories about mermaids all over the world? A coincidence? I doubt that!” She was grinning again.

In the end, Hanji got it her way, and the class had to study mermaids for the next couple of lessons… However, since their books said literally nothing about mermaids or sirens, they wouldn’t really be able to read about them just yet. Hanji said that she would order some books for the four of them, and then they could start their studying. She was clearly too excited, compared to the rest of the boys who still found it unlikely that mermaids could be anything more than elements from folklores. Mostly Eren, though.

Meanwhile, professor Hanji somehow managed to lure the three boys to the beach, which wasn’t very far from the school - you could walk there in less than five minutes. They had to spend their last minutes of the lesson on something, and the professor thought that a trip to the beach would lighten the boys’ mood just a little bit.

Eren, for some reason, didn’t quite enjoy small trips to the beach, swimming pools, or anywhere else with a large amount of water.

He shoved his hands in his pockets and just watched his steps, and even though he was the person the furthest away from the salty water he could still feel the goosebumps down his back and arms clearly. He watched as his shoes nearly sank into the dry sand under him. There were close to no sea shells on this beach, just plain sand and small rocks.

“Isn’t this just great, Eren?” Hanji said, bringing Eren back to reality as he was mentally shaken out of his trance. He quickly turned to look at the professor and sent her a fake smile as he nodded.

“Y-Yeah, it’s great,” Eren said, trying his best to hold back the stutter in his voice - it seemed to be a success.

“Professor, I forgot to ask if you have any homework for us before the next class?” Marco asked as he tried to keep up to Eren and Hanji’s fast pace - Eren was walking fast because he just wanted to get away from this damn beach.

Eren watched as Armin had gone down to the water, watching the small waves barely touch the blond boy’s shoes as they went back and forth. Somehow, Eren started thinking about what he had been told about how ninety percent of the ocean was untouched by mankind. Maybe that was what Hanji was thinking, too? When she said that the ocean was great… Maybe Eren didn’t believe in sea monsters and mermaids, but it would still be nice if something exciting would happen in the boy’s life.

Eren was nineteen years old, and yet he had never been in a relationship, he had never had his first kiss, and he was pretty much doomed to stay as a virgin for the rest of his single life. Yes, he was certain that he would end up alone with seventeen cats in a small, shitty apartment.

Eren was about to say something to the professor, but was quickly interrupted as a single raindrop fell on the tip of his nose. He looked up towards the sky and saw how dark clouds had suddenly started gathering above their heads. The waves around Armin’s feet was starting to become wilder as well, which probably meant that a storm was coming.

“Uh, professor?” Eren said, “It’s starting to rain…” Eren turned to look at Hanji, but the teacher just shook it off.

“Psssh, a little rain never hurt anybody!” Hanji said, just about to give Eren’s shoulder a comforting pat as soon as the loud sound of thunder interrupted her actions, making the four marine biologists freeze completely in place.

“P-Professor?” Armin started now as he ran up next to Hanji and Eren.

“Professor Hanji, a storm is coming,” Marco stated, “And I don’t think it’s just a few raindrops…”

Hanji let out a frustrated groan as she adjusted her glasses, “I would like to say ‘everything for science’ in order to make you stay,” she looked at the three boys with the creepy light in her eyes, “But Erwin would certainly kill me if I was the cause of three students getting sick, so…”

“So we can leave?” Eren was the first to ask.

“Yes… Yes, you can leave! Class is dismissed,” Hanji muttered, feeling quite unsatisfied with having no other choice.

“Awesome!” Eren grinned widely. Marine biology was his last class for the day, which meant that he could return home - he just hoped that he would be able to get home in time, since he still needed to fetch his things from the marine biology building.

The sound of thunder continued above their heads, it got louder and louder, planting small seeds of worry within the minds of Eren. Maybe he wasn’t the world’s best weather forecaster, but this was definitely a storm coming…

A storm no one was prepared for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: Eren finds a strange crature in the school's outdoor swimming pool after the storm, and it's staring directly back at him with its dark eyes...~


	3. The Eyes in the Deep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The storm keeps raging on, but as it settles down, Eren is called to school at 5 AM by professor Hanji, along with the rest of the marine biology class... Here, he finds something strange, dangerous, yet beautiful creature in the depths of the outdoor swimming pool.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Ann for her amazing work at editing! (/u\ ) <3  
> Oh, and can I just say how I totally didn't expect this story to get over 100 kudos...? I didn't even think it would get like... 10 or something? Wow... I'm actually really, really glad! Thank you, everyone! <3

_“There have been reports about continued flooded buildings close to the coast. There have not been any injured or deaths, but we still advise against going near the flooded areas. Stay tuned for more updates about the raging storm right here on channel-…”_

That was when Eren turned off the TV, leaving the living room in silence once again. The only sound being made was Eren’s breathing and the sound of the wild wind outside. It was the day after he had been introduced to the marine biology class, and he and Mikasa were stuck inside their house. The storm was rough, it had already brought down a lot of trees in the neighborhood, which made Eren slightly worried. He had seen their neighbors outside, cutting some trees down themselves in order to prevent the trees from falling on top of their houses, which would easily make a disaster.

“It’s odd, though,” Eren muttered quietly to himself as he looked out one of the big windows in the living room. He watched how trees bent to the wind, how large things, other people’s belongings, were being swept around in the air like light feathers. Trampolines, outdoor chairs - things that should be considered heavy.

“What’s odd?” Mikasa asked as she emerged from the kitchen, a box of ice cream in one hand and a spoon in the other. The girl turned to look at her adoptive brother.

“Just-… Everything. It’s really strange that there’s some kind of heavy storm here, all of a sudden,” Eren frowned as he returned to sit on the couch once again. It was just past midday, and even though it was Wednesday, they couldn’t go to school. The school, and its whole area, had been flooded. They had been told that it was nothing severe, but since everyone advised against going near the flooded areas, the students were told to stay home.

Yes, school was canceled, but it was because of a crazy storm that had forced families from their flooded houses. This wasn’t just the usual snow storm during December that made all the students happy because they could stay home from school.

Even though Eren easily could find something to entertain him - such as one of his many computer games - then he didn’t really feel like it. He felt bad, because he was safe and sound when everyone else weren’t.

“We still need to go shopping,” Eren muttered as a fact hit him. They were almost out of food, and Mikasa couldn’t keep living on ice cream, though their freezer were filled to the brim with it.

“I’ll go,” Mikasa stated as she somehow managed to shove the ice cream and her spoon into Eren’s hands. The boy watched her with a confused glare as he stood up.

“No, I’ll go,” he said.

“No, you stay here where it’s safe,” Mikasa almost ordered. Eren unconsciously let out a growl in frustration.

“Stop nannying me, Mikasa!” he spat at his adoptive sister.

“If you walk out there in the storm, you’ll just get hit by a branch or something,” she stated, “Especially if I’m not there to warn you.”

Eren clenched his fists in an attempt to hold back his anger and frustration. He understood that Mikasa just wanted to protect him because she cared for him, but he was no child anymore - heck, he was even a year older than her! He did admit that he might not be as mature as she was, but nineteen was still an age where you would be considered an adult, mature or not.

Eren’s eyes pierced through Mikasa’s, in the best way he could. His greenish eyes, burning with fury, throwing daggers at her dark, almost black, ones which held close to no emotion.

A small sigh left Mikasa’s lips as she remembered that Eren was quite stubborn. She brushed some of her black lures of hair out of her face, her eyes looking towards the floor in surrender. Mikasa was strong, she was extremely strong - but she was almost powerless against Eren, because she feared that he would somehow come to hate her.

“Fine, come along,” she said with a quiet voice, not being satisfied with the outcome.

The two of them went shopping at the closest grocery store without big obstacles on their way, apart from water puddles everywhere, the heavy rain which still fell on them, giving Eren a severe headache, the wind which tried to make the two of them turn around in defeat as they would have to give in at some point.

However, they were both persistent and got safely to the grocery store to quickly gather the things they needed. They bought an extra amount of food and ingredients, just in case that the storm would keep raging on for some days - they had no idea when it would be over, no one had.

The grocery store was, in fact, surprisingly empty. There were almost no people, which made sense because of the high possibility of getting a branch in your face if you stepped outside your front door. The two siblings quickly paid for whatever stuff they had bought, and returned home in case the storm was getting worse.

The two of them just stayed inside their house for the rest of the day, while the storm kept on raging outside. They watched some movies, and Eren insisted on watching ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’, all of them! When the fourth movie came on, he was like glued to the screen because of the mermaids - and just as Armin and Hanji had said; the mermaids were actually pretty terrifying - or at least until one of them got caught and couldn’t lure the pirates into the depths of the sea anymore.

“You’re behaving strange, Eren. What’s wrong?” Mikasa asked about halfway through the movie.

“It’s nothing, just that in marine biology our next subject is going to be mermaids, so-…”

“Oh? You actually decided to pay attention to the class? Interesting.”

“Hey, my grades are pretty good! It would suck to fail a subject because I didn’t pay enough attention…” Eren muttered and he swore he could hear his adoptive sister let out a low chuckle as she shove another spoonful of ice cream into her mouth.

Despite the fact that they were done with watching all of the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ movies at about 4 AM, Mikasa was still awake early the next morning, having only had four hours of sleep was apparently enough for the girl. Eren, however, didn’t wake up until about 2 PM, since he clearly loved getting plenty of sleep, even if it meant ruining his sleeping patterns. He then spent the rest of the day gaming, noticing how the storm was calming down outside… He even got a text from Armin, telling him how the flooding had stopped last night, so he should be expecting the school to open the next day - Friday - however, only if the school had managed to clean up after the flooding, or else they would probably have to wait until Monday, but Eren doubted that the school would let them wait for three days… Eren didn’t know how severe the flooding had been, but Armin said that the school wasn’t hit that hard, and that it was mostly the school yard and the outdoor swimming pools that needed to be cleaned.

In other words; Eren prepared himself for having to go to school the next day.

 _“Hey, wanna play some minecraft?”_ he texted Armin, hoping to get a reply fast or else he would just play by himself.

Less than a minute later, he heard a loud beep from his phone.

_“Yeah, sure! I already finished all of the homework yesterday, so I’m bored here…”_

A small grin spread on Eren’s face as he read the text. He wasn’t surprised by the fact that his best friend had finished the homework long ago…

 _“I’ll host a server and invite you asap… Hold on.”_ Eren replied, and the two of them soon 

found themselves gaming minecraft until pretty late, despite the fact that Armin usually went early to bed - and at 11 PM, Armin had to leave Eren by himself, since he said how he didn’t want to look like a corpse when they had to return for school.

Eren, on the other hand, wasn’t really able to go to sleep until 3 AM, since he had slept until 2 PM the very same day. His sleeping pattern was clearly ruined, and he mentally braced himself for only being able to have about four hours of sleep, since Mikasa would be waking him up at 7 AM.

“I’m gonna die tomorrow, Keith Shadis is gonna kill me for the 117th time for falling asleep in his class,” Eren muttered to himself as he buried himself in his bed, pulling the duvet over his face with a displeased groan from his lips.

 

_______________________________

 

“Ughh…” Eren muttered as he turned over in his bed, pulling the duvet over his head once again.

_Beep._

“The hell,” he cursed with a hoarse voice. His throat felt dry, and as he opened one of his eyes to look at the clock on the table next to his bed, he felt like crying.

_5 AM._

Who the actual fuck was texting him at 5 AM in the morning?

_Beep._

“For the love of-…” he groaned. He reached for his phone on the bedside table - his sleepy hand hitting the surface of the table a couple of times before he found his noisy phone in the darkness. He just felt like shutting it off and then continue his sleeping, but his curiosity got the better of him and so he checked his texts.

“Seven texts from…. An unknown sender,” Eren muttered, sighing heavily. He saw that the first text was received at about half an hour ago.

_“Hey Eren! Rise and shine! I found your number in the school archive, I hope you don’t mind! Anyways, you have to get up! Meet us at the school ground in an hour!”_

Eren frowned quite a lot - was this some kind of joke? He was supposed to be at the school in half an hour? What the actual fuck?! Who was this person even?

He then opened the second text he had received.

_“This is Professor Hanji Zöe, by the way! Wow, I really love to mention myself like that!”_

“No fucking way,” Eren sat up in his bed, remembering his conversation with Mikasa the night before, remembering how he said that he wanted to get good grades in marine biology? Yeah, that apparently meant that he would have to wake up at 5 AM in the morning, because his crazy professor told him to meet at the school in half an hour.

“I didn’t sign up for this,” the boy muttered as his feet found the floor, the surface seeming way chillier than usual. On his way to the bathroom he checked the rest of the five texts from Hanji, the texts that had woken him up.

_“I hope you’re up, sunshine! -Hanji”_

_“Armin is already here, by the way… Marco is on his way! -Hanji”_

_“This will be exciting! Are you excited? I am excited! -Hanji”_

_“The school ground looks like shit, by the way… It’s quite the sight. I would like to see Erwin’s face when he sees the condition of his beloved school, haha! -Hanji”_

_“Oh, by the way! Wear something that can get messy, because we’re getting messy! Hella messy! -Hanji”_

Eren quickly did his quite messy hair. He was glad that he had showered the day before, because he didn’t have time for it now if he had to be at the school in less than half an hour. He brushed his teeth and wore some baggy sweatpants and one of his old hoodies with a picture of one of his old favorite heavy metal bands that he didn’t listen much to anymore, _Five Finger Death Punch._

“Well, at least it’s not raining,” Eren sighed as he stepped outside. To his surprise, the storm was completely gone. His eyes grew wide as he looked around, seeing how the street was a complete mess, the pavement and roads were covered in branches, leaves, dirt, and anything else the storm had been able to sweep around. He hoped that the neighbors would have it all cleaned up when he returned from school later, because with two hours of sleep he really didn’t give enough fucks to help cleaning up after the storm.

 

_______________________________

 

After having avoided several obstacles on his way, Eren finally made it to the school - just on time, even! Hanji greeted him with a wide smile, though the boy wasn’t very smiley - hell, if Hanji hadn’t been his professor, he would probably have been pretty damn upset with her.

“I hope you got plenty of sleep!” Hanji hummed as she placed her hands on her hips, “Because we have to get to work! The sun is coming up soon, and people will be coming to the school in about two hours!”

“You gotta be shitting me,” Eren muttered quietly, “Professor, what is the reason you wanted us to meet at this time?” He watched as Armin and Marco didn’t seem to have willingly participated in this event, even if Armin was a bookworm, he still treasured his sleep over things like these. Marco still looked half asleep as he hid his freckled face behind his thick scarf, probably hoping that he could get some close-eye without Hanji noticing. Eren was exhausted, but not really sleepy anymore - he had only gotten about two hours of sleep, so he had barely been able to actually sleep deeply.

Hanji, on the other hand, looked completely awake, as always - was she even human? What the actual fuck?

“During the flooding, the outdoor swimming pools caught a lot of goodies from the ocean, and we get the chance to find exciting things before they get emptied and cleaned,” Hanji exclaimed, her eyes shining behind her glasses as her lips turned into a wide grin, “Brace yourselves! Grab a fishnet, and get started! Marco, Armin, you take the large pool, Eren you take the smaller one!”

“Yes, ma’am!” Armin said, Marco just gave a small nod as he was still half asleep.

Eren had to comprehend the fact that he had been called to the school at “shit AM” to poke some fucking fishnet on a stick into some dirty swimming pool to look for “goodies”…

“You’ve got to be fucking shitting me,” Eren whispered under his breath. His greenish eyes were turning cold as he tried his best at sending Hanji sleepy death glares, however the professor just laughed it off as she handed Eren one of the fishnets. 

And that was how Eren found himself standing next to a swimming pool, on a morning where the sun was barely coming up from the horizon. No, it wasn’t a time Eren would even consider “morning”, it was still night - in his book, at least. He was still too sleepy to even give a fuck about his fright of water as he poked the fishnet into the deep water of the swimming pool once again. According to what was written on the tiles next to the pool, the water was about five meters deep. The water was filled with trash from the ocean and from whatever the water had swept along on its way here. There were even more branches and leaves floating on top of the water, which was completely brown and muddy due. Eren couldn’t even see half a meter down into the water because of the mud.

He didn’t even want to know what was below the surface of trash.

“I definitely didn’t sign up for this,” he grumbled just as he poked the fishnet into the depths of the water again, pretending that he actually cared.

_Swoosh!_

Eren’s reflexes immediately made him pull the fishnet back up as he could feel some sort of strong current in the water. He furrowed his brows as he looked at the water, seeing how the muddy surface was creating small waves from its disturbances. He soon realized, that the muddy water was mostly just the surface - in fact, it was some sort of membrane covering the water like a duvet, and soon the surface was crackling because of its continuous disturbances from Eren’s fishnet and whatever had caused the current in the water.

“Huh? Seems that there’s a fish or something in here…” Eren muttered by himself, though it must’ve been a pretty big fish in order to make such a strong current. His curiosity soon rose as he suddenly wanted to know what was in the water, so he poked the fishnet into the water again - deeper this time, and swirled it around a bit.

“W-… Whoa!” Eren let out as a surprised yelp as he could literally feel something pulling at the other end of the fishnet. Eren fell to his knees and lost his grip around the fishnet as it disappeared into the depths of the water.

“W-What the actual-…” he muttered quietly. He could feel how his body was trembling all over. His eyes were wide, his pupils small, as his eyes warily watched the water. He could feel how his blood froze as he could see the silhouette of what reminded him of the tail of a fish, it was hard to tell what color the scales were, but they looked quite dark to him.

That’s when he figured, that this was no small fish.

“Fuck, I think I might have pissed off a shark or something…” Eren said rather loud, gaining the attention of Hanji, who stood between the two swimming pools. Soon, Armin and Marco gave Eren their attention as well.

“Eren? Where’s your fishnet?” Hanji asked, raising an eyebrow at the boy.

Eren was just about to open his mouth to answer the professor, when his eyes flinched, because something moved in the water.

Everything happened so fast.

His heart was caught in his throat, throbbing painfully as he heard the sound of something coming closer in the water, and soon… The muddy water was splashed everywhere in front of him, soaking his clothes.

In that very second, was when he saw it.

He saw, what looked like a person’s face and torso, though what was supposed to be skin, turned out to be fish scales, dark blue fish scales which shone beautifully like sapphires in the morning sun which was rising just above the horizon. The creature even had something that looked like hair, though it looked more like fins with the shape of short, black hair. The creatures hands was slammed onto the tiles just next to the swimming pool in a heartbeat, even making the tiles crack at its strength. Its fingers were covered in fish scales, too- clear, dark blue webbing between every finger, and something that seemed like claws instead of nails.

Eren’s heart had stopped beating by this time.

As everything went by in slow motion, and the creature kept coming closer with its face first, Eren realized that what was supposed to be human teeth was switched out with the ones of a shark - they looked sharp like razor blades.

Eren’s keen reflexes immediately made him shoot himself onto his back and away from the creature which was snapping at him with its teeth, the razor blades snapping together just a few centimeters from Eren’s face, before the creature dove back into the safety of the dark water, not even sending Eren a second glare before doing so.

“W-… Wha-…” Eren was trembling.

The sweat was running from his temples and forehead while he was just looking out into the thin air, not really being able to comprehend what had just happened. His heart felt like it was about to burst inside his chest, and he was sure that he was still asleep, somehow. When he closed his eyes, however, he could still see the gray eyes of the creature on the inside of his eyelids.

The gray eyes that gave some sort of shine like a pair of diamonds would in the morning sun.

He turned his head just slightly to meet the stunned faces of Hanji, Armin and Marco - that was just before the creepiest, widest grin spread on Hanji’s face. Her glasses was shining so brightly in the morning sun that Eren couldn’t tell the look in her eyes, but he knew that he wasn’t going to like this…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you can see/imagine, Levi isn't quite the attractive merman as the ones from fairy tales... Yet.  
> It will all be explained later, hopefully in the next chapter!  
> Geez, I'm so excited to write the next chappie already...~


	4. Hypnotizing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hanji somehow manages to capture the creature, and the professor easily figures out who has to take care of the mermaid and study it...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Ann for her editing~
> 
> I know I updated a few days ago, but I was so excited for this chapter (and the next, huhu~) so I couldn't wait...~

Eren took a glance at his hoodie - he saw how the sleeves had almost been torn to sheds by something that reminded him of blades, or something equally sharp. The thing that had caused the damage on one of his favourite hoodies even gave his lower arms a few, small scratches, though they weren’t very deep - one of the scratches was bleeding slightly. 

There were four scratches on each of his arms. Four scratches that resembled the ones from the four claws. 

“Fucking shit,” he growled angrily as he took off his hoodie and crumbled it up in his hands. He cursed under his breath, because he honestly didn’t know whether he was asleep or awake anymore. Everything felt just like some kind of nightmare, because that creature that had caused those injuries couldn’t possibly be real.

Armin soon walked up to Eren with a first aid kit in his hands. His face was pale, his eyes still showing clear signs of shock as he opened the first aid kit and started cleaning and bandaging Eren’s lower arms with shaky hands.

None of them said anything.

They were in the entrance hall to the marine biology building. Hanji had told them to stay there until they had mentally healed from the sight of the creature in the swimming pool, while Hanji would contact some of her close friends and colleagues to assist in the capture of the creature. This creature, whatever it was, seemed to be very dangerous - it had been centimetres from chewing Eren’s face off with its razor teeth, but had still somehow managed to deliver severe scratches as it had lashed out at the brunette with its claws in a second attempt to defend itself. 

“Does it hurt?” Armin finally asked as he had finished bandaging Eren’s arms from his wrists to his elbows. Eren examined the bandages with a small sigh on his lips. 

_“Of course this isn’t a dream; otherwise I would have woken up long ago…”_

“Yeah, I’m… Fine, I guess,” Eren muttered with a small frown on his face. He was pretty nervous. It was just past seven, and Hanji and her two colleagues, whose names were Mike and Mobilt, had been gone for about half an hour by now. Even though Eren was frightened, he was still curious and he really wanted to see what that creature looked like - he even wanted to study it, somehow.

He showed no interest to marine biology, he would gladly admit that, but this creature had caught his full attention, and he almost felt jealous that Hanji contacted some professional people to help her out when it was, in fact, Eren who discovered the creature at first. He had seen, up close, how the creature looked something like a human, how what was supposed to be human skin, consisted of dark blue fish scales, which looked just like sapphires. He had seen how the creature had thrown daggers at him with its grey eyes, which shone like diamonds in the most captivating way. 

Even if it was dangerous, it was still interesting. 

And…

Somewhere, in the back of Eren’s head, something even thought that the creature was somehow… Beautiful. 

The doors to the building opened and Eren nearly jumped in his seat as he was met with the grinning face of Hanji Zöe. She was soaked from head to toe, but wore a satisfied smile on her face as she corrected her glasses. 

“Success! My friends, it’s a success!” she stated with a victorious pose consisting of a clenched fist high in the air. 

“What?” Eren asked and stood up. His greenish eyes were wide in anticipation, “Did you-… Did you catch it?!”

“This, my friends, is what I would call a strange coincidence… Please, come along- Oh, where’s Marco?” Hanji looked between Armin and Eren as she noted that the freckled student wasn’t among them. 

“Ah… He felt ill, so he had to take a break at the restroom,” Armin excused, “I’m sure he’ll be back in a few minutes, professor.” 

“I see,” Hanji sighed, “Then, for now, the two of you can come along.” The woman motioned for the two students to follow her as she walked down one of the hallways in the enormous building. Eren and Armin quickly exchanged glares before they followed behind their teacher. They didn’t question where her colleagues were, since they thought that the question would soon be answered. 

Hanji was humming a happy tone as she walked down the hallway - the two boys following close behind, though they were both shaking, one more than the other. Hanji seemed to be in a great mood, but then again; she wasn’t the one with scratches covering the most of her lower arms, now was she? 

“Ah, here we go!” Hanji said as she stopped in front of a huge, white door at the other end of the building, “We had this strange fella’ caught and transported to here through another entrance from the outside… It was sure a hard catch, I must say! But it was totally worth it! It’s a beauty!” The woman had stars in her eyes as she inserted her admission card into the small box next to the door - and then gave it her fingerprints as an additional precaution. 

_Beep! Beep!_

The three of them stepped inside, and the two students froze completely in place. 

They were met with the sight of a huge aquarium; it was almost the size of Eren’s house! The aquarium was many meters tall, all of its walls were transparent, and there was a set of stairs leading up to a rather big platform at the top of the aquarium where it was attached to the top of one of its transparent walls. The water in the aquarium was completely clean, though there weren’t really anything else but water.

Oh, and the creature that had left the scratches on Eren’s arms. 

“What the-…” Eren stuttered in shock as he was now able to see the creature completely. 

Nothing had changed from its appearance from when it had attacked him, apart from the fact that he could now see the lower part of it. He could see its tail, which was the same color as the rest of it - those beautiful, deep blue sapphire fish scales, which ended out in a pair of beautiful, dark blue fins. 

“It-… It almost looks like…” Eren muttered quietly for himself - but loud enough for Hanji to overhear. 

“A mermaid, yes?” Hanji said that word Eren didn’t dare to even think about. 

“But it looks more frightening than beautiful, it doesn’t even have human skin like mermaids usually do,” Armin added as he backed a small step away from the aquarium. Armin was somehow right - this “mermaid” didn’t have human skin, it was completely covered in fish scales and didn’t look much human.

“Eh?” Eren said as he raised an eyebrow. He, however, took another step closer to the aquarium as his eyes studied the creature in the water. “I think… Its scales are beautiful, somehow…” 

_Dunk! Dunk! Dunk!_

Eren gasped in surprise as he jumped away from the creature once again as it had started slamming its hands against the inside of the glass wall. First it used its hands and claws at an attempt to break the glass, and then it started slamming its tail against it - which sounded loudly throughout the whole room. 

“P-Professor!” Armin stuttered in fright as he hid behind the woman. 

“Don’t worry! It’s sapphire glass, he won’t be able to break it, trust me,” Hanji assured the blonde boy who looked like someone who was about to shit his pants. 

Hell, even Eren was close to shitting himself. 

“Hanji! What would you suggest we should do with it now?” said one of Hanji’s colleagues who had returned, being just as soaked as Hanji was. 

“Ah, I’m thinking about taking some tests, maybe keep it here for some time, and then release it again,” the woman said with a smile, “After all, it’s not a creature to be kept in captive… But it’s quite revolutionary…”

“Sorry I’m late professor, but-… Holy shizzle…” Marco stuttered as soon as he had found his way inside the room. His face went pale, and he looked like someone who was about to go back to the restroom again. “What is… That thing?” 

Hanji was just about to answer Marco’s question with enthusiasm, but suddenly a strange sound sounded throughout the whole room, which made everyone freeze in place and gaze towards the mermaid in the aquarium. The creature was glaring at the all of them with its gray eyes. Its scaly lips were parted just slightly as small bubbles escaped from in between them.

The strange sounds came from the creature. 

The sounds were light, something a mix between a voice and a piece of brilliant music. It was hard to determine exactly what it sounded like, but it was incredibly beautiful and relaxing. 

The creature was singing. 

“W-What’s going on-…” Hanji managed to stutter, seeming overly surprised by its sudden act - but she then suddenly understood what was going on. Her eyes grew wide as she turned to look at the rest of the people in the room, almost yelling as words left her mouth, “Everyone! Cover your ears, immediately!!”

However, the professor soon realized that it was too late. 

While the creature was swimming around in its aquarium with beautiful, perfect movements, letting its voice sound throughout the whole room, the men, boys, were completely dazed. Hanji looked at the guys behind her and a shocked gasp left her throat as she saw that the glare in their eyes were completely absent. They stared into the thin air, the all of them, with wicked smiles on their lips. 

She was surprised that a person like Mike and Mobilt, some of the smartest people she knew, could become like this. 

“The creature… It’s-… It’s like a siren…” she stuttered quietly in fright, “Guys! You gotta wake up!” she yelled and quickly found herself shaking the shoulders of Mike, then Mobilt. She refused to believe that people with their brains would lose to something like a voice. 

“It’s just like the folklores… It’s luring men into its grasp,” she whispered to herself as she saw how the people around her had slowly started making their way towards the stairs that led to the top of the aquarium - the only way they could actually get into the water to the creature. Hanji remembered how the creature had snapped at Eren when they first had found it, and its teeth were definitely the ones of a carnivore. 

“Professor, what’s going on?” said a voice and Hanji immediately turned around to stand, face to face, with Eren, whose eyes looked completely normal. Hanji’s face was beyond surprised, yet extremely puzzled. Something didn’t add up. 

Eren was, in fact, a boy. 

Eren was a young man, even. 

Why wasn’t he affected by the singing? 

Eren turned to look at the creature in the water, just as Armin had taken his second step up the stairs to the top of the aquarium as the first. The brunette furrowed his brows as he slowly started to realize what was going on, but it seemed strange to him. Hanji wasn’t affected by the creature’s singing, because it could only lure men into their deaths, its voice had no effect on women. 

But Eren was a man, so why wasn’t he affected? 

This question seemed to be in the mermaid’s head as well, because it turned around in its water to glare at Eren. It even narrowed its grey eyes and started singing even louder - the beautiful sounds echoing throughout the room louder than before. It was almost at the sound of the ones at a concert.

Eren shot a glare at the other guys at the stairs, who Hanji was now trying her best at holding back, but with no success. Eren saw how they were close to the top of the stairs, though walking at a slow pace in their trance. 

“Hey! Stop it!” Eren yelled at the mermaid as he slammed a hand against the sapphire glass that separated them. The lower part of Eren’s arm ached painfully because of the scratches that he had suddenly forgotten about in his anger and frustration. “Don’t you fucking dare hurt my friends!” 

Silence immediately spread in the room, and suddenly all Eren could hear was his loud breathing as his eyes pierced through the grey ones of the creature in front of him. The creature eyed him suspiciously with a cold glare before it decided to swim closer to the sapphire glass between them. 

Everyone in the room had stopped their movements, and the other guys soon fell to their knees as they were woken from their trance. They all groaned in unison as they claimed to be having major headaches all of a sudden. 

Hanji, on the other hand, was too busy observing the interaction between Eren and the mermaid to give a fuck about the state her students and old colleagues were in. She watched how Eren had almost frozen in place in front of the sapphire glass, putting his hands up against the glass in a slow, careful motion. The mermaid, in return, sent Eren a doubting glare and even hissed at him - baring its sharp teeth at the boy…

But it didn’t swim away. 

“It’s… Beautiful,” Eren mouthed as his eyes grew wide. Now that he was able to see the creature up close in bright lightning, he had to admit that its sapphire fish scales were stunningly beautiful. The way the scales covered every curve of the mermaid’s body perfectly, amazed the brunette. Maybe the mermaid didn’t look like the ones from fairy tales, where the upper part of the body looked exactly like the one of a human, but this was just as beautiful, Eren thought. 

The creature’s facial expression changed immediately with Eren’s words, and the look of some strange expression mixed with utterly confusion roamed its face. Its hissing immediately disappeared, and it looked like something that didn’t know exactly what to do.

Therefore, a frustrated growl left its throat as it quickly slammed its fist against the sapphire glass - right where Eren’s face was - before immediately dashing off to the other end of the aquarium to get away from the brunette.

Eren raised an eyebrow at the odd behaviour from the creature before he turned to look at the other guys and Hanji. They looked just as confused as Eren was, but then Hanji decided to clear her throat with a grin on her lips. 

“Well, Eren Jaeger… You seem to be quite the student, so…” Hanji started as she crossed her arms over her chest as she walked towards the boy, “I can see plenty of reasons to leave this study in your hands.”

“Eh?!” Eren exclaimed with wide eyes. 

“Since you, for some strange reason, are not affected by its singing, and since it seems that it’s curious to find out the reason why, too… Then I think it would be a good idea to leave this creature in your hands,” Hanji smiled widely, “I’m expecting a thoroughly detailed report of at least seventy-five pages!”

____________________________

“Please tell me this is some fucked-up dream,” Eren muttered quietly a few hours later.

“It’s not some fucked-up dream, I’m sorry to bring it to you,” Armin muttered in return. His face matched Eren’s completely - they were both equally sleepy, worn-out and completely dumbfounded. Before they had left for their school, which started at 8 AM, they had all agreed that they should keep this mermaid a secret until they had finished their studies about it and had let it out in the ocean again. They wouldn’t dare risk anything, so they all agreed to keep their mouths shut. 

“Eren, why aren’t you eating your lunch?” Mikasa asked. It was midday, and Eren still had to fight his way through two other classes before he could go home - oh, right! No, he couldn’t go home, because his lovely professor Hanji Zöe had assigned him to do a FUCKING SEVENTY-FIVE PAGES REPORT ABOUT A MERMAID THEY CAUGHT IN THE SWIMMING POOL THIS MORNING.

Eren just banged his head against the surface of the table, letting out a loud, exhausted groan. 

“Just end my life already…” Eren muttered against the slightly sticky surface of the table. 

“Two hours of sleep definitely isn’t enough for you, Eren…” Mikasa sighed, oblivious to what they had experienced just about five hours ago. All she knew was that they had been poking fishnets into the water of the outdoor swimming pools and that Eren apparently had to do some kind of long report for some reason. 

She didn’t want to ask, because she could see how much it troubled her adoptive brother. 

“Oi, Armin,” Eren muttered as he looked at the blond boy sitting at the other side of the table, “Say, aren’t I just as much man as you and Marco?” 

“Eh?” Armin asked in confusion as he raised both of his eyebrows. 

“Am I secretly some kind of girl or something?! I’m so confused! Please help me out here?!” Eren said way louder than he had meant to. 

“I’m glad you finally realize it, Eren,” Jean shot from two seats next to Armin as he shove a small slice of pizza into his mouth.

“Eeh?! You wanna go, Kirschtein?!!” Eren yelled at the taller classmate as they both stood up and even pushed their chairs over while doing so. They both raised their fists simultaneously, the lightning striking between their glares becoming visible for everyone in the cafeteria. 

“Bring it on, Jaeger!!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Waaah~ Your comments and kudos make me so happy you have no idea...! ;;u;; <3  
> I wish I could hug the all of you, but sadly; I can't... 
> 
> So instead I'll just keep writing to make you all happy~ <3
> 
> Next chapter: Eren's first time alone with the mer"maid", AND Eren's sad life story is told! ;;3;;


	5. Opening Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren's first time alone with the merman. He tries to gain the creature's trust, and something surprising happens...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait... ;;-;;   
> Chapter is not yet edited, but I couldn't wait for the editor any longer... :c

It took Eren a surprisingly long time to make Mikasa understand that they could not go home together after school, because he sorta had something he had to do - which had something to do with a certain mermaid in a huge ass aquarium, but he couldn’t tell her that. Hell, even if he could, she would probably have sent him right to the hospital to get his head checked.

“The professor in marine biology asked if I could stay after school, so I guess I’ll stay an hour or so,” Eren said to his adoptive sister, trying to calm her down because she had quite a worried look on her face. Apparently she knew that Eren had only had about two hours of sleep, and the dark sacks under his eyes gave him away as well. His breathing was a little bit faster than usual, because he was using too much energy in order to stay awake.

“I’ll be home before dinner, I promise,” he assured her with his hands comfortingly on her shoulders, “I really want to get good grades in this study, alright?”

“I understand,” Mikasa said, though with a slight frown on her face, “I swear, if this professor of yours causes any harm to you because of her crazy way of teaching, then-…”

“No! No, no, no, it’s all fine!” Eren quickly said as he forced a small smile on to his exhausted lips, “Just trust me, alright? I’ll be home soon.” He didn’t even know how long Hanji would have him to stay at the marine biology building. He had been told that they were going to make some tests on the mermaid, but Eren was honestly kinda frightened by now - he had been having a hard time lying to Mikasa about where his Five Finger Death Punch hoodie had disappeared to, but he just couldn’t risk her seeing its torn sleeves.

The mermaid was dangerous, and Eren was in no condition to make any tests on the creature without getting some proper sleep.

Luckily it was weekend, so he could get some sleep as soon as he got home.

“I’ll see you at home,” Mikasa sighed as she swung her bag over her shoulder and turned around on her heel. Eren stood and watched as his sister left, walking through the school yard towards the bikes. Eren wished he could go home too, but because of some stupid mermaid… He was still stuck in school, at 3:15 PM.

As soon as Mikasa was out of his eye sight, Eren let out a deep, exhausted sigh he had been holding. The brunette then turned to make his way towards the marine biology building. He had received an admission card earlier this day, and apparently his admission card also granted him access to the room where they kept the merman. He was the only student who had the access to that room, because it was too dangerous for anyone who could be affected by the mermaid’s singing.

Though Eren still thought that the term “mermaid” shouldn’t be used for this creature.

Maybe it was just him, but he thought that even if it was hard to tell because of its whole body being covered in fish scales, and not showing even an inch human skin, it still looked more male than female to him. It had broad shoulders and no female curves, that should be enough to determine its gender, if it even had one that is.

“Ah, it’s good to see you, Eren,” Hanji hummed as she exited the building, shooting Eren a dashing smile.

“Do I have any certain tasks while in there?” Eren smiled faintly back, his eyes feeling heavy still.

“I would be glad if you could get it to eat something?” Hanji said with a slightly worried face, “It hasn’t eaten anything we’ve been trying to feed it… It’s just been growling at us and lashed out at our hands and arms.”

“Oh…” Eren muttered.

“Yeah, it would be horrible if it died! Can you imagine it?!”

“I should probably get going then… Excuse me, professor!” Eren said, actually just using it as an excuse to get away from the woman, since she was slightly crazy, and she clearly hadn’t been sleeping much either, since she had even bigger sacks under her eyes than Eren had.

Eren quickly made his way into the building, his school bag on his back as his fast steps slowly got heavier. He hoped that he would be able to get some close-eye once he was alone in the room with the mermaid - it probably wouldn’t mind him getting some sleep, would it? Or would it just snap at him like Keith Shadis had done during math?

He felt his eyes relax as soon as he entered the room where the huge aquarium with the mermaid was. This room was way more dim, compared to the way too bright hallways that Eren had walked in order to get there. The brightest thing in this room was, in fact, the dim lights in the aquarium itself. The lights shone through the water, throwing various of moving, beautiful patterns on the walls and the floor. The patterns moved like waves against the sand on a beach. It was relaxing, calm, and Eren could soon feel how he grew even sleepier.

Everything felt just perfect to lie down and take a small nap - until Eren’s eyes met the ones on the other side of the sapphire glass of the aquarium and the brunette froze slightly in place as he watched the mermaid staring directly back at him. The mermaid’s arms were crossed over his scaly chest, looking at Eren as if he had no interest in the other. Eren just swallowed thickly as he decided to make his way towards the sapphire glass, on shaky legs. His stomach was turning at this point, mostly because he was frightened to some point. He had seen how this creature had torn his hoodie’s sleeves completely. He had still bandages wrapped around his lower arms - he had found it necessary to borrow a shirt with long sleeves from Marco so that he wouldn’t get glares from other people, including Mikasa.

“So, let’s get this straight,” Eren said, his exhaustion probably being the one talking at this time, “You obviously don’t like me, since… Let’s be honest, you tried ripping my arms and bite my face off…”

Eren swore he could see the mermaid raising what would be an unamused eyebrow at him - hell, it didn’t even have eyebrows, everything was covered in those blue fish scales. The brunette decided to make his way up the stairs to the platform at the top of the aquarium. He could see the rather large bucket of fish up there, the fish that Hanji had probably tried feeding the mermaid with.

“So…” Eren started as soon as he got up to the platform, taking wary, careful steps as to not fall in the water or anything, looking down into the aquarium at the mermaid who just glared back up at him. “My professor told me that you haven’t been eating since we caught you-…” At those words, the mermaid shot him a glare before it dashed off towards the other end of the aquarium, almost as if it was offended. Eren just furrowed his brows at this - did it actually understand what he said, or was it just playing hard to get?

Was he supposed to think of this creature as intelligent, or just as a fish?

He thought that he should probably play safe, since trying to call it to me like it was some kind of dog, wouldn’t be a good idea.

“Alright, alright… You want to play hard to get? Well, I can be quite patient, I tell you!” Eren was lying to himself, he was the most impatient person he knew. Why was it that Hanji had even assigned him to this task again? Why did his professor actually think, that he would have more success at feeding this creature? Eren was really bad at making friends in the first place, and to make a mermaid his friend? That was never going to happen.

Hell, it didn’t even like him one bit!

Eren shot a small glance towards the bucket of fish before he decided to sit down, just about two meters away from the end of the platform where the aquarium was fastened to. He crossed his arms over his chest as he thought this through.

He wanted to get good grades in this study no matter what it took!

“Do you have any intentions of eating at all? Or are you planning to starve yourself to death?” he asked, his eyes glued to the bucket, though raw fish didn’t seem that delicious to him, unless it was sushi. “Do you even like fish? How does Hanji know what a mermaid eats?”

Why was he asking the creature again? Did he actually expect an answer?

Another heavy sigh left his lips - this was going to be a long day.

He sat with his back against a small wall that the platform was built up against. His side was to the aquarium, though he didn’t look in its direction - he could still feel the glare of the mermaid on his face.

“How is it even to be a mermaid? Or just to be a fish… Do you have a family waiting for you back in the ocean, or do you live alone?” Eren started talking; he wasn’t sure if he was talking to himself or to the mermaid, but he didn’t stop. “Must be nice to be so free… You can swim anywhere you want, no one telling you what to do…”

And the brunette just kept going from there.

“Your teeth and claws tell me that you’re quite far up the food chain, right? That must be nice… To be stronger than anyone else in your environment…” Eren’s voice was softer now. His exhaustion getting the better of him. He barely thought before speaking now, and he didn’t intend to stop just yet.

“I’ve always been the weak person, you see… I have no siblings, but my parents adopted this girl whose parents had died in a car accident, and even though she’s a year younger than me, she’s still better than me at everything…” Eren didn’t dislike Mikasa, no he loved her very much! But he still envied her for being good at everything.

“I only have one friend apart from her; that blond boy who you saw this morning too… I’m really bad at making friends, and I’ve always been. I’m impatient, aggressive, and I can get upset over nothing! Years back, when I was in elementary school, I got into fights every day, and the older kids found some kind of sport in making me go nuts every single day so that they would have an excuse to beat my sorry ass up without getting in trouble with the teachers because I started the whole thing…” Eren smiled a bit at himself; he pitied himself. He was talking about his problems to a fish, who probably didn’t give a fuck about his life problems.

He felt his eyes sting, he was going to cry very soon and there was nothing he could do about it once he had started.

“Those kids who mocked me, beat me up every day… They frightened me, somehow. They still do, whenever I see them at the mall or anything, though they probably don’t remember my face, or even my name, they still scare me… When I was smaller, I was always a happy, smiling kid, but after those years of school, my self esteem dropped a lot, and I started isolating myself, closing myself inside my room with my computer games… It all got even worse when I turned ten and my mom lost the fight to cancer and died… After that, the only people I actually spoke to was Armin and Mikasa, who could put up with my temper. I’m still bad at letting people in; what if they don’t like me? What if they decide to use my weaknesses against me and turn my life into hell once again?” A heavy sigh left Eren’s lips. He clenched his eyes shut and cursed under his breath as he felt the small drops of water slide down his cheeks and to his jaw.

He was crying.

“Shit… It’s embarrassing… How no one seems to like me; hell, I’m a nineteen year old virgin. I’ve never had a girlfriend and I’ll probably never have one,” he laughed, leaning his head a bit back as his eyes turned to look at the ceiling, “I’m sorry, why do I even bother you with my sad life sto-…”

He turned to look at the aquarium and froze.

His breath was caught in this throat as a pair of gray, cold eyes, bore themselves into his green ones.

The mermaid was leaning against the end of the platform; its arms resting on top of the platform while its long tail was still in the water. The mermaid just stared at the brunette in silence. Water drops was slowly sliding down its scaly skin and onto the platform, just barely two meters away from Eren. If the mermaid reached out for the boy, it would probably almost be able to scratch him, but the look in its eyes didn’t seem aggressive as the morning when they caught it.

The look in its eyes was calm.

Eren was having a hard time not to panic; he was sitting just about two meters away from a mermaid, with no sapphire glass in between them to protect him if it decided to lash out after him with its sharp claws.

But they were both silent and calm for a short time. They just watched each other for about a minute. Eren was almost completely captivated in the way the flue fish scales lined out every facial structure on its face, how it made out every curve on its body.

“Do you…” Eren said, almost a whisper, “Do you understand me?”

It didn’t move - it just eyed him up and down, and then held their eye contact for another ten seconds - though those ten seconds felt like minutes.

That’s when it finally happened.

The creature, who still held Eren’s gaze, relaxed. Its scaly skin started somehow disappearing, into something that looked like human skin.

No, it didn’t ‘look like’ human skin.

It was really human skin.

The upper part of the mermaid’s body started changing, and what used to be covered in dark blue fish scales, was soon revealed to Eren to be milky white, clean skin. It looked like skin that had never seen the light of the sun, showing just how deep down in the ocean this creature lived. The fins on its head changed, too - it changed into hair; lures of silky hair that was black as night. Its hairstyle was like an undercut, with strands of its hair covering a little bit of what was its face.

It’s face.

Eren’s heart stopped beating for a short while, as he took in the sight of the creature’s face.

It had a pair of narrowed, gray eyes, showing small signs of lack of sleep as some darkness lured under them. Its eyebrows were thin, like two lines just above its eyes, giving the look of an expressionless face. Its nose was perfectly shaped, and its lips were thin, pressed together in a straight line, adding up to the expressionlessness.

However, there was something that didn’t look human.

Its ears consisted of a pair of pointed ears that looked like fins, the same color as the fins on its tail.

Its hands had turned completely human as well, its claws were gone and looked like normal nails, though its hands were webbed; the fine dark blue fin showing between its fingers. Its arms were strong, showing its muscles through its skin as it flexed just slightly under its small movements.

Eren couldn’t see its chest and stomach, but from the look of its arms and shoulders, he could tell that it would be a ripped chest, and muscular stomach.

And the brunette quickly figured out, that it was not an “it”, not a “her”… This mermaid was clearly a “him”, a merman.

“Holy-… Holy Maria…” Eren stuttered just slightly as he looked at the merman. This merman was beyond attractive, Eren would gladly admit that - and suddenly every fairy tale in the world seemed to be fact.

“You-… You… But…” Eren stuttered in confusion.

The merman was rolling his eyes at the brunette, showing clear annoyance.

“So… Was that just some sort of defensive stance?” Eren said, though he quickly realized that his choice of words sounded somewhat like something from one of his computer games, but he just shook it off; the merman didn’t even know what a computer was.

They mostly just sat like that for a couple of minutes, until the merman started getting dry from the stomach and up, and had to get back in the water - this is when Eren saw that the merman had a pair of gills on the sides of his neck, allowing it to breathe underwater.

Eren let out a groan in frustration as the merman splashed with his tail, making water splash over Eren and soaking him through to his underwear.

“Fucking fish stick,” the brunette growled angrily as he quickly took off the shirt he had borrowed from Marco, revealing his slim, gray T-shirt underneath it, and his bandaged arms that he had nearly forgotten everything about.

Eren just frowned as he saw that even the bandages were soaked and the salt water was making his wounds sting painfully. He decided to take the bandages off too and quickly saw that some of the bandages were slightly red from what would be his blood. He remembered that one of the scratches was bleeding earlier this morning, so that might be it.

Eren looked over his shoulder towards the aquarium and quickly caught the glimpse of the merman, peeking his head just slightly over the water to look at him, however he dived back into the water almost immediately as Eren turned to look at him.

Was the merman spying on him or something?

Eren furrowed his brows slightly as he put the bandages next to Marco’s soaked shirt before taking a quick look at his bruises that hadn’t healed much yet. One of his arms were almost completely covered in his dried, dark blood, and he suddenly felt relieved that it hadn’t gone through the bandages to that someone would have been able to smell the blood - that certain someone being Mikasa.

“It stinks a bit…” Eren muttered to himself, but then shrugged before grabbing the bucket of fish, walking towards the edge of the platform and the start of the aquarium, “Fishy, fishy, fishy…” Eren sang sarcastically, only earning a cold glare from the merman at the other end of the aquarium.

“Are you planning on eating this fish, or…?” he sighed as he sat down with crossed legs at the end of the platform, watching the merman, “You’re only torturing yourself by doing this…”

Eren’s eyes caught the gray ones of the merman, as he had emerged just slightly from the water, his head peeking over the surface, though he was still meters away from the brunette. The creature watched him with wary, cold eyes, still not trusting the other at all. He didn’t seem to want to come any closer either, so Eren decided to grab a fish from the bucket, though he winched at the feeling of its slimy, wet, cold scales.

“You got to be kidding me-…” he huffed angrily before holding the fish out towards the merman, though it didn’t help; he still didn’t come any closer.

What if this merman didn’t eat fish? What else could he eat if not fish?

Maybe it was eying Eren like that because it wanted to eat his face, just like it had tried to the very same morning - and it had almost happened, if Eren’s keep reflexes hadn’t made him jump away just in time.

Nah, mermaids and mermen couldn’t be eating humans, could they?

Eren was only looking away for a small second in thought, before he felt something grab at the fish in his hand which was still handed out towards the water in the aquarium.

“E-Eh?!” Eren exclaimed in surprise as he turned to look at the aquarium again, moving a small meter away from the water. He realized that the fish in his hand was gone.

“What the actual-…”

Eren furrowed his brows and looked down into the water. That’s when he saw that the merman, who had dived back into the water, was now eating the fish hungrily, as if he hadn’t seen food in days, which might have been the case. Eren could barely see, that the teeth of the merman were somewhat more human now, but still looked sharper somehow - especially his canines.

The brunette swallowed thickly before he grabbed another fish as he realized that the merman had almost finished eating the first one. He just hoped that his arms wouldn’t be bitten off or anything while feeding this creature.

Really, what had Hanji been thinking? Assigning a student with no knowledge about mermaids to this task?

A small sigh left Eren’s lips.

Oh well…

If this was what it took to gain just a little bit of trust from the merman, it was what he had to do. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So~... The merman changed its appearance into something more... Attractive~ Dayum~ 
> 
> Next chapter: Eren decides to learn more about mermaids in order to get closer to (and hopefully somehow communicate with) the merman...


	6. Trusting and Testing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren goes home to read more about mermaids, though it's hard to know if the things written in his books are true or not, so he decides to test some of them on the merman later on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This might've been a bit late, sorry~   
> I've been kinda... Busy. =3=
> 
> It's unedited, because my editor is still unable to do so. :c

Eren looked at the clock one last time as a sigh left his lips. It was a little bit past six and he had promised Mikasa to be home before dinner, so he had to get going if he didn’t want to be late. Mikasa would start asking too many questions if he didn’t get back home on time; questions such as where he had been, who he was with, what he had been doing… Hell, if it was one of her bad days, she might even take her own bike to the school in order to bring him back home.

She was so overprotective - it wasn’t like she was Eren’s mom, they weren’t even related by blood.

“I should get home,” Eren muttered to himself as he closed his laptop and put it back in his school bag. He had been writing on his report, writing his observations down for the day, including the way the merman had been able to change his appearance, which Eren found really fascinating. The brunette still wanted to get closer to the merman somehow, but that would mean gaining more of the creature’s trust.

He wasn’t going to give up on that, though.

He was really curious about what the merman’s scales felt like; were they the same as a normal fish’s scales? What about his human skin, was it like a normal person’s skin? Was it soft? Was it rough?

He had so many questions left that were still unanswered.

He looked at the merman from the corner of his eye, seeing that the creature was peeking its head over the surface of the water, watching the brunette’s every move and probably judging whether he was a threat or not. Eren was still too scared to sit closer to the aquarium than those two meters so it wouldn’t be able to reach him in case it wanted to bite his face off again.

“I’ll probably have to come back tomorrow to feed you,” Eren sighed as he swung his bag over his shoulder and started walking down the stairs to get on solid ground once again, leaving him to stand in front of the sapphire glass to the aquarium.

He heard a low growl from the water which startled him.

“W-Whoa,” Eren said as he turned around to look at the water, realizing that the merman had changed his appearance again, and he was now covered in his dark blue fish scales from tail to head, once again. He was baring his fangs, his long, sharp fangs, that could bite through flesh with ease. His eyes were that cold, light gray color, like the ice at the poles; cold, merciless, deathly.

He was growling like some furious beast.

“Ah, Eren!” a voice said and Eren was almost caught off guard as he turned around in surprise, “It’s good that you didn’t leave yet!” It was Hanji. She had just walked through the door, walking towards Eren with a bunch of books in her arms. Eren hadn’t even heard her come in, but suddenly, he understood why the merman had changed its appearance again; apparently it didn’t trust anyone but Eren for some reason - but then again, Hanji was quite scary at times, even Eren was still uncertain whether it was a good or bad decision to attend these marine biology classes.

“The books arrived today, please bring them with you home and maybe read a bit in them,” Hanji explained as she handed the brunette the books. Eren saw, that the first book had an image of something that looked like mermaid bones on its cover, though it was hard to tell if those were real or fake. People all over the world had been making fake evidence of mermaids’ existence, after all. A simple google search would show a hundred of different mermaid imagines that would have almost nothing in common, apart from the half-human, half-fish part.

“Thanks, professor,” Eren smiled as he took the books, “I was just about to head home. Mikasa is waiting for me, I’m sure.”

“Ah, have a safe trip then, I’ll see you Monday,” Hanji hummed.

“No, professor,” Eren quickly said, “I would like to come again tomorrow, if you don’t mind? I want to study him a little bit more… B-Besides, he needs food. He accepted the fish I fed him with.”

“Oh? You made it eat? Wait-… ‘him’?” Hanji raised an eyebrow and Eren immediately felt his cheeks burn in embarrassment. He had completely forgotten that Hanji hadn’t seen the merman’s other appearance.

“Y-Yeah, I mean… It looks like a male, right? It has no curves like a woman would have… And its shoulders are much wider than a female’s,” Eren said, flashing Hanji a small smile, “Of course I could still be wrong, but that’s just my observations…” Eren didn’t want to tell Hanji about the merman’s other appearance just yet; not before it wanted to show it to her by itself.

“Hooh?” Hanji corrected her glasses as she shot a gaze at the merman, “I can definitely see what you mean… Maybe it’s a male, then?”

“That’s my guess,” Eren smiled faintly, “I’ll take my leave, professor!” He hurried past the woman, whose eyes were still as glued to the merman in the aquarium, who was still baring its razor fangs at her.

 

___________________

 

Later that evening, Eren found himself sitting in the living room with the television on. It was showing Pirates of the Caribbean, the fourth one, but Eren didn’t pay much attention to it; he had been absorbed in one of his books about mermaids that he got from Hanji. Mikasa had walked past him a lot of times, but she didn’t want to comment on how surprising it was to see Eren reading a book - a book that wasn’t a comic book, at least.

“Let me see,” Eren whispered to himself as his eyes went down over the page in his book. This book had specialized itself in sirens, though so far Eren didn’t see the huge difference between sirens and mermaids. He was sure that about half of the things written in these books were false, and being pure guessing. A lot of the things didn’t match, including that it stated that sirens and mermaids were beautiful female creatures.

The creature back at the marine biology building was definitely male.

Suddenly, the image of the male back at the lab appeared in his mind. The way, the merman would look at him with his gray, cold eyes, though he didn’t show any signs of threat any longer. The image of the merman’s body and muscles, joined very soon, and Eren caught himself blushing.

Why was he even thinking about the merman? Maybe it was a very beautiful creature, but it wasn’t even human. It didn’t have legs, it had a fish tail instead - a long, dark blue, shining fish tail, which would be longer than the legs belonging to the torso.

“I wonder how they even reproduce?” Eren furrowed his brows as he thought about it. Clearly the creature at the marine biology building didn’t seem to have any genitals, though he honestly didn’t want to think much about it. He hadn’t even seen the merman’s tail properly, not while it had revealed its true appearance, at least. He was sure that the books didn’t tell anything about their genitals or anything either, since they still stated that there only existed female sirens and mermaids.

The part that worried Eren the most was, that sirens’ singing affected all men, despite of age.

At this, Eren decided to pull a bit out in the elastic band of his sweatpants, and peek down in his underwear.

_“Yep, I am indeed a boy…”_

“Uh-…” a voice said behind the brunette all of a sudden.

Eren gasped in shock and quickly let go of the elastic band of his sweatpants with a loud “SNAP”, as a rather rough pain shot through his body, starting from the skin just above his crotch which was now all red because of the impact from the elastic band.

“Ouch!! Holy shit, Mikasa!” the boy exclaimed as he looked over his shoulder to see his adoptive sister watching him with a pair of wide, surprised eyes. She looked like someone who was confused, yet didn’t really want to ask about the awkward situation she had caught her adoptive brother in.

“Should I… Leave you alone, or something? Though I’d prefer if you did that stuff in your room…” Mikasa muttered with a small sigh.

“I didn’t do anything!” Eren swore, “I was just checking something!”

“Eh? Checking something?” Mikasa mumbled, raising a suspicious eyebrow at her brother, whose cheeks had turned into a hot pink color.

“I-… I mean…” Eren tried his hardest at coming up with an excuse, and fast.

“Say, Eren, is there a girl you like or something?”

“What?!” Eren exclaimed in shock.

“What’s her name? Class? Year?” the girl nearly growled under her breath, her eyes shining with something that reminded Eren of the look the merman had had in his eyes when he tried biting his throat off the very same morning.

Murderous intent.

“Mikasa!” Eren hissed back at the girl, “I’m not in love with anyone, got it?! I’m just stressed, that’s all.”

“Yeah, I thought it was strange if you had gotten a boner by watching Pirates of the Caribbean and read stuff about mermaids… I would probably have sent you to the hospital or called 911,” Mikasa rolled her eyes, “Or maybe it’s just your hormones going crazy, what do I know?”

“Why are you even my sister…” Eren sighed deeply as he buried his face in one of his books once again.

“Because a man with a long beard up in the sky decided to bless you with a perfect sister, dumbass,” Mikasa spat back.

“Touché…” Eren rolled his eyes, “Did you want something?” he turned to look at the television once again, it was at the part where the young priest had made sure that the mermaid had enough air in her glass chest, which the pirates used to carry her on land.

“Armin texted me, saying he couldn’t get in contact with you, so he just asked me to check up on you and make sure that you hadn’t killed yourself because of the fact that you had to write an awful long report for your professor,” Mikasa said with a frown on her face, “Are you sure I shouldn’t talk to your professor? Seventyfive pages seem like too much for a report in a subject you’ve just started taking classes in…”

“N-No!” Eren turned around to look at his sister again, “It’s fine, it’s nothing! I’m already pretty far with it, and I actually think it’s exciting…”

“Wow, now that’s just scary,” Mikasa looked utterly shocked, “My brother not only seems interested in a subject, but he even enjoys writing a way too long report about it? What’s the subject anyway since it’s so exciting?” The girl stretched herself in order to look at the headlines in the open book which was lying in Eren’s lap.

“It’s-… Eeer…” Eren’s cheeks started turning hot pink once again.

“Mermaids? Really?” Mikasa let out a small chuckle, “Aren’t you too old in your class for that stuff? Or does the professor just think you’re dumb or something?”

“It’s the last subject in cryptozoology,” Eren muttered as he returned to reading his book, though the brunette furrowed his brow just slightly as he read something in the book that he certainly didn’t know about mermaids, “Say, Mikasa?”

“What is it?” the sister sighed, she was just about to leave his brother alone when she got interrupted again.

“… Do you still known Latin?” Eren hesitated a bit before he decided to ask her. Mikasa used to take Latin classes last year, though Eren had never found interest in languages he wouldn’t have any use for. No one used Latin anymore, anyway.

“Oh? Well, it’s a bit rusty, but yeah?”

“Could you teach me some phrases, perhaps?” Eren smiled just slightly at his sister, whose face was still showing clear signs of confusion. Why would Eren even need to learn Latin anyway? No one used that language - apart from, maybe, some mythical creatures.

“I can bring you my English-Latin book, how about that?” Mikasa said as she turned around to walk towards her room. Eren flashed her a thankful smile just before she left him alone.

“Oh! And please tell Armin that I’m studying.”

“Aye, aye, captain,” Mikasa sighed heavily as she left the living room.

As Eren turned to look at the television again, it was that part where the mermaid turned into a human being, which made him frown ever so slightly.

“I wonder what the merman would look like as an actual person…”

 

___________________

 

The next day, after Eren got some proper sleep, he was already heading to school on his bike at midday. He had made himself a pretty big lunch, since he feared that he would be stuck at the school for quite some time. He knew that Hanji and the other professors would probably be there too, but so far it was only Eren that the merman had trusted.

He was excited, honestly.

He was so excited, that the rain didn’t bother him at all, even though his hair was pretty soaked at this point. The cold raindrops had gone through some parts of his clothes, sending cold shivers down the brunette’s back, but he didn’t really bother about it. His mind was somewhere else.

Eren had been reading a lot before going to bed, so there were a lot of myths he wanted to test out on the merman, if it wanted to help him. Including the myth that Mikasa helped him out with: Apparently, mermaids’ mother tongue is Latin. Of course, that fact probably wasn’t true, but it was still worth a try.

Eren had had the feeling that the merman could speak, mostly because he sometimes reacted to what Eren was saying, so he would at least know the difference between words, right?

As Eren stormed through the halls of the marine biology building, leaving small trails of water puddles on his way, he was met with the two of Hanji’s friends, Mike and Mobilt. They didn’t really see him, since they were busy with discussing something, which seemed to be far more important than a brunette who looked like a drowned puppy, literally.

His clothes were like sticking to his cold skin, not that it mattered - he was pretty sure the merman would soak his clothes one way or another anyway.

“Ah, Eren!” Hanji exclaimed as Eren entered the room where the merman was. The creature was still in its aquarium, of course, and it was glaring coldly in Hanji’s direction, though as soon as it caught sight of Eren, it’s glare turned softer, if just a little bit.

“Hey, professor,” Eren smiled with a heavy sigh, “I’ll get right to work… Did he eat anything today?”

“No, he wont even come to the surface when we’re on the platform, no matter what we try…” Hanji sighed in defeat, “I don’t know how you did it, but you somehow managed to gain his trust, so just keep doing what you do, alright?”

The professor’s words made the corners of Eren’s mouth turn slightly upwards into something that would seem like a smile. He was somehow honored to be able to take care of a mermaid, though the only reason he was taking care of it probably was that he was too much of a pussy to let the merman’s singing affect him like it affected Mike, Mobilt, Marco, hell even Armin.

“Thanks, professor… Would you mind leaving us be for the time being?” Eren raised a small eyebrow as he looked at his professor with his best puppy eyes, eyes that even Armin couldn’t resist. He had often used his ability to make adorable puppy eyes to get Armin to buy an ice cream for him, or to be player 1 in a game or something like that.

“Sure, call me if anything happens,” Hanji hummed as she closed her notebook and turned around on her heel. She sent the merman a last, quick look, though it was just responded with a threatening hiss from the scaly lips of the creature. The professor’s glasses shone slightly in the light from the lamps in the ceiling, before she gave Eren a quick wave and hummed her way out the door.

The room was struck with silence, the only noise being the deep sigh that left Eren’s lips.

_‘Dunk Dunk…’_

Eren turned around to see the merman, knocking his knuckles gently against the inside of the aquarium. He had turned back to the more beautiful appearance - the one, where his human flesh was revealed from his stomach and up. He sent Eren a small glare, before he bared his teeth ever so slightly at the brunette, though his eyes weren’t threatening.

He was hungry.

“For the love of-…” Eren sighed heavily as he started to make his way up the platform, “Now, if you weren’t so stubborn, you would actually have gotten plenty of food from Hanji or the other scientists!”

His words were just met with a low growl.

“Fine, fine… Have it your way,” Eren muttered as he got to the platform and grabbed a fresh fish from the bucket, which had contained the merman’s food the day before as well, “But… Let me test something first…” A wide smirk crept onto Eren’s lips as the merman had surfaced, leaning against the end of the platform with his milky white, but muscular, arms. He glared at Eren, being too hungry to take any of his shit.

He was about to use the merman’s hunger to his advantage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: Silliness.. Lots of it...


	7. Asking, Speaking, Touching

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren and the merman makes a deal, which gives some interesting results...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unedited~

“Okay?” Eren smirked at the merman while he held up the rather large fish. He was certain that the merman could smell it very well from where he was resting - hell, the smell was probably all over the place.

Another low growl left the creature’s mouth, his brows furrowing.

However, his reaction only made Eren smirk even wider, though he quickly forced the smirk away as he took a deep breath, trying to remember the homework he had been doing all evening. He knew that he would probably fail at this, but it was worth a try - besides, it should be now, before the merman had gotten something to eat, because then his bait would be useless.

“Salve,”( _Hello_ ) Eren said, letting the unfamiliar word leave his lips, furrowing his brows slightly at the strange way of pronouncing the word. However, he immediately noticed how the merman’s fin ears perked up ever so slightly, his gray eyes completely focused on the brunette now.

Eren gulped before he tried to continue, since it seemed that the merman understood him somehow, “Qu-… Quid est nomen tibi?” _(what’s your name?)_ Eren looked at the merman and noticed, that the creature had started sending him doubting glares, as if it was hesitating somehow, not really knowing what it should do… Therefore, Eren simply continued, “Nomen mihi est Eren…”(My name is Eren) Eren had managed to somehow teach himself a few Latin phrases in the evening, though he had close to no idea what to do, if the merman actually replied with some words he didn’t know.

If it even wanted to reply, that was…

“Loquerisne Latine?” ( _Do you speak Latin?_ ) Eren started to feel rather dumb. He was speaking to a fish, a fish who showed close to no signs that it even planned to answer any of his questions, even if Eren had taken the time to teach himself some Latin. He had planned to not give the merman anything to eat, unless he decided to speak to him - even if it was just a word! Eren wouldn’t even care what the merman said, but he just wanted to see clear signs that it actually understood him.

“Come on…” Eren sighed, the feeling of defeat creeping over him. All that was happening between the two of them, was the merman’s glare. The merman was glaring into Eren’s eyes, with what seemed like no plans of actually granting him his wish and speak to him.

“For the love of God… It’s not like I thought a fish would be able to actually talk, or anything…” Eren groaned as he bent down to pick up one of the fish from the bucket, cringing slightly at its slimy fish scales.

Just as the brunette was about to surrender, something took him by surprise.

“Tace!”( _Shut up!_ )

It was just one word, but it was more than enough to make Eren jump back in surprise as his eyes immediately moved to stare at the merman, who stared right back at him with a pair of cold eyes. It bared its sharp fangs at Eren, letting out a small hiss between its thin lips.

What shocked Eren the most, though - was the fact that it had spoken to him.

“Quid vis? Esurio…” the creature hissed coldly at Eren, making the young brunette shiver ever so slightly. The merman’s voice was cold, deep and masculine, way more masculine than Eren would have thought it’d be, compared to the way it had been singing a few days earlier.

It took a few more seconds before Eren realized, that he probably had to figure out what the merman was saying to him, so he immediately let go of the fish once again, to fetch the English/Latin dictionary, which Mikasa had borrowed him, from his back. Though he did hear the merman let out a small growl as soon as the fish was returned to the bucket.

“Q-Qu… Quid… Vis…” Eren stuttered under his breath while he looked through the many pages in the dictionary. His hands were shaking nervously, making it nearly impossible for him to hold the book still. Even though it was just about three words Eren had to look up, it was still hard to do so, and it took him longer than it should. Besides, he was still having a hard time comprehending the fact that he was the first human to have communicated with a merman, though he still didn’t understand much Latin.

He actually pretty much understood none, apart from the few words Mikasa had taught him.

“Oi, human,” a voice said, immediately snapping Eren back to reality as he lowered the dictionary from his face so that he could see the merman, who just shot him a bored glare, “You’re trying too hard, besides… Your pronunciation sucks.”

“E-Eh…” Eren muttered quietly, “You… You speak English…” It wasn’t a question, it was more like a statement - a statement that surprised and shocked Eren at the same time. It made him feel dumb, too, because he had been trying to communicate in Latin, and failed a lot at that. The merman didn’t say anything at that, he just glared at the brunette still - glaring with its steel gray, cold eyes.

“M-… My name is Eren,” Eren stuttered while he closed the book, “What’s your name?”

“You already tried asking about that, and that didn’t turn out well, now did it?” the merman glared at him.

“R-… Right…” Eren mumbled, feeling a loss for words, “But… Why didn’t you speak anytime sooner? Now I’ve wasted so much time-…” Eren was interrupted as he realized, that the merman wasn’t listening - the beautiful creature in front of him was busy cleaning one of its scaly ears with its little finger - its gray eyes weren’t even looking at Eren anymore, it had started to become bored, it seemed.

“Oh? Did you say something?” the merman suddenly shot at the brunette.

“Yeah!” Eren groaned, “I said-…”

“If it’s not about that food you promised me, then I’m not listening,” the merman interrupted once again, closing its eyes as it leaned back in the cold water, as if it was some kind of comfortable bathtub.

“Food…?” Eren mumbled as he realized what the merman was talking about. It’s true, Eren was using the merman’s hunger to make him speak, so he guessed he did owe him some food now, right? It had started talking now, even though it seemed rather… Arrogant.

No, it seemed very arrogant.

“I’m sorry…” Eren stuttered slightly as he picked up two fish and handed it to the merman. For some reason, he felt less scared to get close to the merman now, since he knew that it was intelligent and didn’t act completely on instincts alone.

Or, at least that’s what he thought.

He received a glare from the merman while he waited for it to take the fish.

“I’ve never seen a mermaid before…” Eren muttered as soon as the merman took the fish from his hands, making sure that their skin didn’t touch, “Are there a lot of you merpeople in the ocean?”

The merman moved away from the platform as soon as it had taken the fish from Eren, its eyes didn’t leave the brunette’s face - until it decided to dive back under the water to eat its food in peace and quiet, it didn’t even answer Eren’s question, though it wasn’t a surprise to the boy… The merman didn’t seem interested in answering any of Eren’s questions anyway.

“Annoying…” Eren muttered as he sat down on the platform and opened up his computer. A small shiver ran down his back as soon as he sat down. He looked at his legs and realized, that the rain outside had soaked his pants completely, making the fabric of the jeans stick to his cold legs. He furrowed his brows, since he didn’t dare putting his laptop in his lap like this, he knew that his soaked jeans would end up destroying something in its hardware.

“Now what…” he asked himself as he turned to look at the aquarium, realizing that the merman was still not at the surface, it was probably busy eating its fish. Eren appreciated that it went underwater to eat its fish, since he didn’t feel slightly interested in watching the merman sink its razor teeth into the scales of a raw fish and tear its flesh apart.

No, he was completely fine without that sight.

So, Eren decided to take off his pants and socks, so that it could hang and dry on the railing at the platform - hopefully it would be dry when he had to go back home. He just hoped that the professors wouldn’t come, because that could turn into an awkward situation.

At least his boxers were almost completely dry, and his T-shirt was pretty long, too - almost covering his embarrassing, yellow Spongebob boxers.

Eren sat down once again, putting his laptop in his lap as he immediately began typing, adding new observations to his report, such as the fact, that merpeople could speak Latin and English, if not other languages - he still needed to ask the merman where it had learned how to speak English, though he doubted it would even want to answer any of his questions this time.

If only he hadn’t given the creature its fish, then he could still had used the fish as some sort of bait to make it talk, now Eren had no “bait” he could use…

“God dammit…” Eren growled angrily at his own stupidity, but then realized that something was looking at him.

In fact, from the corner of his eye, he could see the top of the merman’s head peeking up from the water’s surface as it watched him with wide eyes, staring at him in something that seemed like… Wonder?

Eren turned his head to look back at the merman, but to Eren’s surprise - the merman wasn’t paying any attention to the young boy’s face, since it seemed that its gray eyes were like glued to the sight of Eren’s long, naked, slim legs and feet.

Hell, the merman was like frozen in the water as it just stared.

At this, Eren started wriggling with his toes, which immediately made the merman “jump” back in the water in surprise, almost like it had just seen a ghost, or something else supernatural.

Eren suddenly found himself laughing at the arrogant merman’s reaction, and he moved to sit in a cross-legged position instead, moving his laptop to the platform and off of his lap. Eren’s hands grabbed his ankles as a pleasant humming emerged from his lips, “Don’t tell me you’ve never seen feet before.” Eren turned his head to look at the merman, who tried to force himself to look away from the fascinating legs, and to the brunette’s smirking face. The merman quickly hardened its facial expression again, as soon at it realized that Eren was making fun of him.

“You don’t see many legs where I come from… And if you do, they all belong to dead humans,” the merman hissed coldly, making Eren lose his smirk and gulp in return. He just remembered, how dangerous this merman was, and he should definitely not try to annoy it too much - at least if he wanted to keep his face the way it was, with no teeth marks.

“Okay, okay… Let me think a little bit…” Eren muttered as he leaned his head a bit back.

“Wow, don’t overdo it now…” the merman rolled its eyes.

“I got an idea,” Eren then said after only a few seconds of silence, “Let’s make a small deal, shall we?” A wide grin spread on his face as his turquoise eyes almost shone with excitement.

“Why would I want to make a deal with a filthy human…?” the merman snarled, furrowing its thin eyebrows, “You don’t have anything I’m interested in, apart from letting me out of here, but that’s not anything you can decide…”

“But I have feet,” Eren teased as soon as the smirk returned to his lips.

“So?” the merman raised an eyebrow, “Want me to be jealous?”

“I thought, if you would like to answer a few questions, I would let you touch them in return?” Eren suggested and he quickly saw, how the merman’s dark blue fin ears perked a bit up in interest, just like when Eren had started speaking Latin to him.

“Bring it on, then,” the merman challenged with a small glare.

“First off… How do you know how to speak English and Latin?” Eren started asking, grabbing his notebook and pen, since it would be too difficult to sit with his laptop and type everything in, so he decided to just take small notes in his notebook for now.

“Well…” the merman started off, “Merpeople have always known Latin, since it’s our mother tongue… But we’ve learned a lot of languages through the time, because our hearing is magnificent, which makes us able to listen to conversations on-board ships and the like…”

“I see…” Eren mumbled as he started writing it all down, “What other languages do you know?”

“France, German, Swedish, Italian, Dutch… Those are the languages I’m fluent in, but apart from that I know quite a few Asian languages as well…”

“Oooh,” Eren said with wide eyes as his hand kept writing all the information down, “That’s amazing… How old are you, exactly? If you’ve had time to learn so many languages?!”

“34,” he answered while rolling his eyes. This was a bit surprising to Eren - especially because he didn’t look older than 21, at most.

“Of course, that’s equivalent to about 510 human years…”

That made Eren freeze completely in place as he lowered his notebook to look at the merman, who was resting against the platform, his facial expression serious as always. It raised one of its thin eyebrows to look at the brunette, who didn’t know how to react.

“So… You’re telling me, you’re over five hundred years old?” Eren asked again.

“You could say that, yes,” the merman muttered, “As long as we’re in the water, we age really slowly… But if we’re forced out of the water for a longer time, we’ll age just like a normal human being,” he explained, followed by a small shrug, “Not that I’ve tried it…”

“I… See…” Eren stuttered slightly, thinking about what else he should ask the merman.

“What do you eat?” he smiled, “Apart from fish.”

“Humans,” the answer was quick and short, the merman not paying much attention to Eren’s reaction.

Eren gulped nervously, “S-… Seriously…?”

“Yeah, seriously… Though I haven’t eaten anyone in what seems like a hundred human years… If not longer…” the merman growled. Suddenly, Eren understood why the merman had tried to eat off his face when he first saw him; he did, in fact, eat humans. It actually explained quite a lot, including why merpeople liked luring people into the ocean to drown them.

They ate them.

“S-So… Moving on!! What is it like… In the Ocean? How’s life down there?” Eren tilted his head slightly, imagining how life would be in the depths of the Ocean. Was it dark? Was it cold or warm? How many unknown sea creatures lived down there? Were there huge villages of merpeople, or were there only a few? What about the food chain?

“It’s dark and lonely,” the merman stated, “Nothing else to say there… Next question.” Eren noticed how a frown was showing on the merman’s face all of a sudden. Even though the brunette wasn’t quite satisfied with the answer he received, he still decided not to push the merman any further, since he didn’t wish to anger him in any way.

“I-… I think that’s all I wanted to ask, for now…” Eren sighed as he closed his notebook.

“Hooh?” the merman almost smirked, knowing what it meant - he would get his part of the deal, and get the chance to get a closer look on a pair of human feet.

“Just-… Don’t bite them or anything…” Eren muttered quietly as he moved a little bit closer to the end of the platform. The merman would soon be touching his feet and legs. He didn’t know how he felt about that, especially because he had never even touched the merman’s hand before, and he was a little bit curious about how the merman’s skin felt, too.

“W-Whoa!!” Eren exclaimed as soon as the merman grabbed his ankles with no warning, and pulled him towards the end of the platform, towards the water, “W-Wait! Hold on!” Eren’s heart was quickly pounding against the inside of his chest, the adrenaline rushing through his veins since he was coming dangerously close to the water.

Water…

“No!! Stop!” Eren grabbed on to the railing to the sides of the platform, watching as the merman stopped pulling as soon as Eren’s knees were at the end of the platform, and his feet would be touching the water, if it wasn’t for the fact that the merman was holding his ankles. The merman had completely ignored Eren’s yelling, since it was too caught up in studying Eren’s feet.

At least it had stopped pulling him towards the water…

The brunette took a few, deep breaths, while he tried to calm his pounding heart again.

“Holy Sina… Stop scaring me like that…” Eren muttered quietly as he watched how the merman studied his feet with curiosity, twisting and turning his feet slightly, making Eren fall to his side once in a while.

“Doesn’t it hurt to walk around on these?” the merman asked, his thin eyebrows still furrowed, “The skin underneath is so soft…”

Eren shivered just slightly as he felt the merman run a finger under one of his feet. It wasn’t like Eren was ticklish under his feet, no - he was just slightly sensitive, in some way.

“U-Uh… No, it doesn’t… Unless you step on something sharp… Like a sharp rock or something…” Eren explained. Now that he thought about it, it was a rather strange situation, having someone hold his feet like that.

“Interesting,” the merman muttered, his gray eyes not looking away from Eren’s legs for one second. Instead, the merman’s incredibly soft, webbed hands found their way up Eren’s slim, slightly tanned, legs. Eren was a little bit embarrassed, mostly because - honestly, the merman was incredibly handsome, and that same creature was touching his legs, feeling completely lost in something like feet?

Feet and legs, of all things.

This was like some sort of ‘The Little Mermaid’ parody…

Eren let out a small gasp as he felt the merman’s hands at his knees - under his knees, which made him shiver. For a second he felt like telling the merman, that it was enough touching, but a small part of him was actually still scared when it came to the merman.

Instead, Eren took the time to quickly pull his shirt further down, covering his Spongebob boxers for… Reasons.

“Haah…” Eren covered his mouth as a small gasp left his lips. The merman’s hands were on Eren’s inner thighs, and Eren wasn’t able to control his body’s reactions any longer - he had agreed that the merman could touch his feet and legs, but he didn’t think about his thighs, which were very sensitive places for the brunette. Eren’s cheeks had turned a bright red color, so he decided to look away from the merman for now.

Shivers ran down Eren’s back, as the merman almost caressed his soft thighs, oblivious to the things he did to the poor brunette, who was struggling to keep down his voice. Eren was a virgin, he had never had anyone touch him those places before, and even though it felt oh so good, it felt wrong at the same time. The merman’s touches were actually turning Eren on - hell, the merman wasn’t even human, so why did Eren get turned on by this?! Why did he struggle to hide the bulge in his Spongebob boxers? Why did he have a bulge there?

Just… Why?

And why was the merman’s hands so soft, yet rough? Why did those hands feel so incredible against his thighs…?

“T-That’s enough for now!” Eren suddenly let out as he started crawling backwards from the merman, stumbling back to his laptop and notebook, with his heart pounding rapidly against his ribcage like never before, “N-Not more… For now…” Eren bit his lower lip as he turned his back towards the merman, who was just leaning against the end of the platform with a confused expression on his face.

At first, the merman didn’t understand what was up with Eren’s reaction, but the creature was smarter than that, and he was suddenly smirking widely, knowing very well what had just happened to Eren, what he had just done to Eren.

However, he made sure to remove the smirk from his face again quickly.

“Levi,” the merman said, leaning a bit back from the platform as soon as Eren turned a bit around to look at him with a puzzled glare.

“E-Eh?” Eren muttered.

“My name. It’s Levi,” the merman said again, rolling his eyes at the brunette, “You gave me your name, I thought it’d be impolite not to give you mine.”

“Oh…” Eren said, smiling a little bit at the merman, though his cheeks were still a bright, pink color, “N-Nice to meet you, Levi.”

“Tch…” the merman rolled his eyes again, before diving back under the water, so he didn’t have to keep Eren company any longer - which was fine with Eren, especially since the growing tent in his boxers wasn’t something the brunette could hide well…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel so dirty... Oh God, and next chapter will be dirtier... //clears throat//
> 
> Oh, by the way! I'm starting another Ereri/Riren fanfic, as some sort of side-project... Feel free to check it out~!   
> http://archiveofourown.org/works/2761517/chapters/6192146


	8. Thoughts and Pleasure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren is bored at home... Stuff happens in his room~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this chapter is SO late, but I had a tiny small writers block... ;;-;;   
> Hopefully it's solved now, and you wont have to wait this long for the next chapter, promise~  
> So... This chapter is mostly some kind of filler... Forgive me~

Levi didn’t come up to the surface for the rest of the day, no matter what Eren said or did. Eren could choose between watching the merman swim around in his aquarium for the rest of the afternoon, or he could go home and maybe spend his time on something productive instead. Besides, it wasn’t like the merman would miss him if he left. So as soon as Eren had finished writing his notes into a document on his computer, he packed his stuff and went home, just after saying goodbye to Levi, of course. A small part of Eren didn’t really want to speak any more to the merman, since he was quite flustered because of the touching he had done to him, but another part of him still wanted to talk.

Levi was really intelligent, so of course he knew what he had done to Eren, and the thought scared the brunette greatly. However, he still had to return the next day, if Hanji told him to, because Levi still didn’t trust anyone apart from Eren, it seemed. The brunette was somehow flattered, but he actually hoped that Levi would at least accept food from the professors in the future, so that Eren didn’t have to feed him every single day like some pet fish.

_Pet fish?_

Levi was a merman, not some kind of goldfish in a small, round fish bowl, even though it felt like that a lot of the time. The only difference was probably the fact that Levi only accepted food from Eren, where a goldfish wouldn’t give a fuck about who gave it food, since its memory only lasts about three seconds.

“I’m home!” Eren exclaimed as soon as he stepped inside his house, earning a short reply from Mikasa who had seated herself in the living room, watching some sort of action movie Eren didn’t know. The brunette just gave his adoptive sister a small smile before he headed to his room, dropping his bag in the corner just next to his desk. He closed the door, as usual, enjoying just a tiny small bit of privacy once in a while. Mikasa could be quite clingy, but they had agreed that Eren’s room was his safe place, where she wasn’t allowed to just barge in.

Besides, he had his private moments, like any other teenager.

A heavy sigh left Eren’s lips as he sat down in his chair at his desk. His eyes skimmed over his many posters on his walls, which resembled a typical teenager’s wall decorations. Five Finger Death Punch, of course. Linkin Park, Guns N’ Roses, Skillet, and a couple of other bands. His music taste was a little mixed, granted, but he enjoyed Rock and Metal the most - usually those music genres that none of the people at school liked. Eren wasn’t too much into Pop, hence one of the reasons he didn’t really like going to parties much.

That, and the fact that the last time he got really drunk, he was just inches away from making out with Jean Fucking Kirschtein, if Mikasa hadn’t stopped him. Eren’s personality changed a lot when he got drunk. He would get all loving and caring, unlike his usual self, and he would gladly find a seat in other people’s laps - usually guys’ laps, which included a drunk Jean Kirschtein’s, some months ago.

Sadly, Eren hadn’t forgotten about it, he hadn’t forgotten about the embarrassing touching he had done with his rival. Apparently they had had their hands way too far up the other’s shirt, only to have Mikasa pull a stumbling Eren away by his ear. Maybe Eren had been too drunk to actually remember it himself, but Mikasa had made sure to tell him every single detail about the party the next day, and the day after that.

The same went for Armin, who had apparently been watching the whole episode with his mouth agape.

Jean and Eren never spoke about the incident again.

The thought of kissing Jean almost made Eren puke, and he hated his drunk self for that incident.

“Ugh,” Eren groaned as he leaned back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling, “What should I do tomorrow… Levi is scaring the living crap out of me sometimes…” Eren muttered as he furrowed his brows, trying to thinking about something else for the moment. He hadn’t forgotten about the way Levi had touched his legs, all the way up to his inner thighs, a place where he was very sensitive. Besides, he was almost twenty years old, and his hormones were still raging like crazy because of the fact that he was still, painfully, a virgin. The closest he had ever been to having sex - apart from the incident with Jean - was when he had been hanging out with Annie Leonhart, someone he used to play a lot of combat games with.

Nonetheless, Annie suddenly decided to run her hand up Eren’s thigh just as they were playing Tekken on his PS3, not only causing Eren to lose the game because of his instantly shaking hands, but also make him very flustered because of the sudden action.

He might also had grown a small boner because of it, but it never led to anything else, because Eren was socially awkward when it came to such things, and had absolutely no idea how to continue the whole thing, if he actually wanted to end up getting laid.

It didn’t happen, though, and now he and Annie barely spoke together anymore.

“I wonder how merpeople actually have sex…” Eren muttered by himself as he was still staring up at the ceiling. He had unconsciously started biting in a pencil that had been lying on his desk next to one of his many math notebooks.

“It’s not like they have genitals or something… At least I didn’t see Levi having anything…” Eren furrowed his brows even harder when he realized, that he had just caught himself looking for his pet fish’s genitals, apparently.

No, Levi wasn’t a fish, that was wrong to call him.

However, he wasn’t human either.

Still, Eren thought the human part of Levi was quite attractive, he would gladly admit that. Levi’s hands were cold, but incredibly soft, like the inside of an untouched rose.

Slowly, Eren started thinking about the way Levi had touched his legs, running his soft, webbed hands over his long, slim legs, touching every inch of his skin curiously, like the brunette’s legs were some kind of fragile treasure. Eren could almost picture Levi in front of him. He had been watching the merman, while he had been almost caressing the brunette’s legs. At some point, Levi had started touching up his knees and thighs, his eyes still not looking away from the slightly tanned skin on the legs. Eren had thought that it was almost sweet, how fascinated Levi had been when he first saw Eren’s legs, and as the merman was completely focused, Eren had been able to spot the long, dark eyelashes the merman had, framing his silver eyes.

“He… Touched me up here…” Eren muttered quietly, inhaling deeply as he slowly ran his hands up his knees to his thighs. He was still sitting with his head leaned back, and soon, his eyes were closing too. As his mind started to wander, so did his hands. He was touching his own thighs, where the touches of the merman still lingered. The merman had had such perfect, masculine, yet beautiful, hands. The dark blue webbing between his fingers shone like a thousand sapphires, just like the scales on his long tail. Eren would gladly admit, he had been wondering what the merman would look like if he was human; he had thought about what his legs would look like, how tall he would be…

“Shit,” Eren muttered under his breath, as he was pretty sure he could suddenly smell the Ocean; the same thing Levi smelled of. He could feel the calm breeze, like the wind at the beach during summertime. He could almost taste the salty water - it’s strange, though. Eren could usually never think about the water like that, without freaking out, but for some odd reason, the thought of the merman calmed him down.

It wasn’t like the brunette had just found out that merpeople usually ate people - oh, and Eren was a person, so why did the thought of Levi calm him down?

Eren trailed his fingers down his stomach, lifting his shirt just a little bit so that he could feel the cold air hit his slightly toned stomach. As soon as the cold air hit him, he inhaled deeply; feeling a rush of something familiar running through his lower stomach, hips, and down to his thighs. He was bored, and he had missed having some time alone since Professor Hanji gave him that task of taking care of that attractive merman.

Eren undid his zipper quickly while his other hand had already started traveling its way down the elastic band of his boxers. The walls in this house were quite thin, so he knew he would have to be quiet, though he’d never had the problems with keeping his voice down before, so he was sure it wouldn’t be difficult this time either.

“Haah…” Eren let out a long sigh as he felt his hand being wrapped around his growing erection, still hidden away in his boxers. He needed a release, he needed to finally relax and let it all out, now that he was finally alone and had the chance to get some privacy, and as his slender fingers started massaging his length, his heart quickly started speeding up, pumping his blood faster and faster through the veins in his heated body.

His hips jerked ever so slightly in his chair, making it squeak every time he let his thumb rub over the slit of the head of his erection, picking up the few drops of precum and using it as a small amount of lube to moisture the rest.

_“Levi…”_

_“E-Eh?”_

_“My name. It’s Levi.”_

The brunette furrowed his brows and closed his eyes tightly, as he swore he could suddenly hear the merman’s voice in his head. Maybe his mind was just wandering too much off at the moment, maybe he should stop thinking about the merman at a time like this. Even if Eren was slightly curious about the merman, even if he found him just a little bit attractive, he still couldn’t let himself think about such a creature at this time.

However, he quickly remembered the way the merman had touched his thighs earlier, letting his hands travel over Eren’s sensitive, soft skin, caressing his thighs like it was nothing.

A faint image of a smirking, knowing merman was lingering in the back of Eren’s mind.

“Ha-… Haah,” Eren let out another deep sigh as he shot his head back against the backrest of his black leather chair. His back arched as soon as his hand, wrapped around his throbbing erection, picked up its pace, stroking faster, squeezing harder, just like he wanted it. Granted, he had never had sex with anyone, but he was still a teenager with raging hormones, and this was the only way he could get rid of some of them.

Eren found it too easy to think about the merman in this situation, but when he was turned on it was easy for him to picture someone attractive touching him, even if he wasn’t in love with the said person.

Even if said person wasn’t human, it seemed…

“Mh-… Fuck,” he whispered with his eyes clenched shut, his head thrown back against the backrest of his chair. His breath quickened up ever so slightly, the same went for the speed of his stroking as the precum continued running down his hand and the rest of his shaft. His mind started getting cloudy as his hips jerked ever so slightly against his stroking, wanting more friction though he didn’t really have the time, nor the space, to do more than just stroke himself.

His vision turned white. He bit his lower lip to hold back any sounds that might make their way up his throat, even though he had a huge urge to let out a loud moan, or at least just a gasp. He could taste the blood from the fresh wound in his bottom lip, and as he came with a wild orgasm, his semen hit both his toned stomach and his shirt, staining it with white.

“Fuck,” he breathed and let his hands fall to his sides as he leaned back in his chair, completely exhausted from his rush. His breathing was heavy and loud, but he didn’t care if Mikasa heard him, since his mind was filled with the embarrassment of having thought about his pet fish while he masturbated. Now that he had been turned off again, he realized it.

“I-… But… No, he’s like my pet fish,” he muttered angrily as he covered his eyes with his arm, letting out a loud groan of frustration. He had to get his shit straight as soon as possible, if he wanted to be able to look Levi in the eyes tomorrow, without thinking back to what he had just done.

Levi would be disgusted with him, too - he was sure of it!

_Beep! Beep!_

A rather loud sound emerged from his phone, which was still packed away in his school bag.

“Ugh, not now, Armin!” Eren almost yelled at his bag, as if his best friend would be able to hear him. He had to clean himself before he touched his phone, that was for sure. Besides, if Mikasa stepped into his room anytime soon, she would definitely be able to understand what he had just been doing, since the smell of salt and sex was in the air.

Eren quickly closed his pants as he got up from his chair, tucking his shirt off almost immediately to get rid of the smelly stains.

_Beep! Beep!_

His phone went crazy once again, but he just rolled his eyes while he exited his room, in order to get rid of the evidence of his recent pleasurable moment. Armin could always go crazy if Eren didn’t reply to his texts right away.

_Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!_

See? That’s why Eren was sure that it was Armin who was texting him.

“For the love of Sina… Armin, take it easy!” Eren groaned as he returned from the bathroom, where he had put his shirt away in the laundry bin and washed his hands as well as his stomach, chest and flustered face.

He ran into Mikasa on the way back to his room, but he just quickly avoided eye contact since he didn’t want to cause an awkward situation - since he was still half naked.

As soon as he checked his phone, his eyes grew wide.

The many texts were, indeed, from Armin. They were all about the fact that Armin had something important to tell Eren, but the blonde had just given up, and written the important information in the last text, which made his heart skip a small beat in fear.

_“Marco accidentally told Jean…”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: Eren has to make sure Jean can keep his mouth shut...


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren meets up with his friends, just before his important appointment with a certain merman.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this took so long, holy--... ;;^;; I've been having some problems lately, involving stress from cosplaying, etc. ... I'll try to update a little faster!

The next day, Eren had been forced to go to the mall with Armin. They had to meet up with Jean and Marco, the only two students who knew about the merman now, apart from Eren and Armin. Even Mikasa didn’t know about it, because Eren had actually succeeded in keeping it a secret - something Marco apparently couldn’t do.   
“I’m glad you all could come,” Armin cleared his throat as they all took their seats at a new cafe at the mall. The name of the cafe was “Café Maria”, a rather odd name if you asked Eren - it would’ve been more normal with a name such as “Maria’s Café”, but no, apparently not…  
They were seated in the far back of the cafe, away from other customers. They didn’t want to risk anyone overhearing their conversation about the merman, though nobody would probably believe it anyway. Maybe people would just think they were some guys from a roleplay or geek club.   
“Arlert, just quit it. It’s not like this is some top secret meeting,” Jean muttered with a small frown on his face, “This is a complete waste of time…”   
“Well, we wouldn’t have to be here, if someone could have kept quiet about the whole thing,” Eren mumbled with his arms crossed over his chest as he eyed Marco.  
“Hey, don’t blame Marco, Jaeger!” Jean threatened, “This isn’t his fault!”   
“Oh yeah? Getting all defensive around your boyfriend now, are we?” Eren growled back at the slightly taller guy, teasing him as usual, because Marco always seemed to have some sort of calming effect on Jean. While the two aggressive guys started getting all worked up, Marco did his best at trying to calm them both down, but it all ended out in Marco stuttering quietly some incomprehensible words.   
Well wasn’t this starting out perfectly?   
It hadn’t even been two minutes of Eren and Jean being in the same room, and they had already started fighting.   
“Oh God, Jean! Well, I guess you can’t spell stupidity without ‘u’…” Eren rolled his eyes as he leaned back in his cafe chair.   
“What did you say, Jaeger?! Well, there’s certainly an ‘I’ in ‘Stupid’, too!” Jean exclaimed, a visible vein showing on his forehead at this point.   
“… Oi, are you serious…” Eren sighed as he facepalmed himself.   
Armin let out a heavy sigh as he rubbed his temples with his index fingers. It wasn’t like he was surprised or anything; he had seen this coming. Eren and Jean would always end up fighting, and since Mikasa wasn’t here to stop them, this would be going on for some time.   
“What the hell is going on here?” a voice suddenly said, making both Jean and Eren, whose hands had grabbed the other’s shirt by now, freeze completely in place. It was mostly Eren, who could almost feel something cold running down his spine in fright, and as he turned around to see the face of the owner of the voice, his heart stopped beating for a small second.   
It was a waitress, but that wasn’t the worst part; the wort part was, that it was Annie Leonhart.  
Annie fucking Leonhart was working at this cafe. She was Eren’s latest crush, and the closest he had ever been to getting laid. Her eyebrows were furrowed as she eyed the two aggressive guys, who still hadn’t let go of the other’s shirt, with her narrowed eyes while she tuck her blond hair behind her ear. She readied her ordering block and grabbed a pen from the breast pocket in her black uniform. She chewed a few times on her bubble gum before opening her mouth to speak once again.  
“So… What does the geeks want?” she asked in the same, monotone voice, that Eren had gotten used to at some point, but he now almost had completely forgotten.   
“Give me a Coke, Annie,” Jean smirked at the familiar waitress as he winked and leaned back in his seat. He received a short glare from Eren.   
“Just some water for me, please,” Marco said, politely as always.  
How the hell could Marco fall for a jerk like Jean in the first place? Eren didn’t quite get that…  
“Same for me,” Armin added, and everyone focused their eyes on Eren now.   
“Just—… A Coke here as well,” Eren cleared his throat, feeling really, really awkward in front of Annie.   
“Sure thing. Coming right up,” Annie muttered while chewing on her bubble gum as she turned on her heel and disappeared out of view, just in time to let Eren exhale a breath he had no idea he had been keeping.   
“Well, that was awkward,” Armin whispered as quietly as possible to Eren, who was sitting right next to him.   
“You think…?” Eren glared at Armin, “Did you know she worked here?”   
“What?! N-No! I had no idea, Eren!” Armin quickly said, “A-Anyway… Moving on to the subject and reason we’re gathered here today…” The blonde’s voice was shaky and slightly stuttering.   
“Right. Eren’s petfish…” Jean said, rolling his eyes, “What’s the big deal anyway? I know you found a rather big, scary-looking fish after the flooding… So what?” Somehow, for some reason, at this point Eren had his hands clenched tightly into a pair of fists. He was grinding his teeth so hard, trying to make himself shut up and let Armin do the talking, since he knew that he would just start a fight with the horseface, Jean.   
“That’s not the point, Jean…” Armin tried to say, “It’s a mermaid, not just a fish, and that’s what’s so important about this.”  
“You want me to keep my mouth shut? No problem. Who should I tell about this mermaid of yours? Who would believe me? Hell, even I’m having a hard time believing it…” Jean laughed a bit at his own words. Of course, being told that something like a mermaid existed was unbelievable, right?   
But still, apparently they exist…   
“We—… We just don’t want the wrong people to know about it,” Armin smiled faintly, “We’re scared that someone might try to take him from us, confiscate him, if you will.” He made small motions with his hands while he spoke, trying to get the taller male to understand what he meant.   
“Yes, yes… I get it,” Jean groaned, “I already told you - I’m keeping shut about your ugly pet fish, okay?”   
“Levi certainly isn’t ugly!” Eren exclaimed as he slammed a fist on his table, eying Jean with his furious, green eyes, “So shut you mouth, you fucking piece of shit!”   
A wave of silence struck the whole cafe, as Eren’s yelling had been quite loud, bouncing off the walls, even. His heart was beating rapidly against the inside of his chest, even after he had calmed a little bit down and realized what he had just done. He immediately withdrew his fist from the table, planting it in his lap.   
But he still didn’t look away from Jean - he was still angry at him.   
“Levi?” Armin asked, tilting his head slightly, “Who’s Levi?”   
“Did you name your petfish, jerk?” Jean asked in a quiet voice, not wanting Eren to give them even more attention than they already had from the other tables.   
“I didn’t name him, moron,” Eren glared, “He told me his name.”   
“He told—… Wait! He speaks to you?!” Armin was the one speaking in a loud voice now, and he leaned over the table in order to get eye contact with Eren, “He speaks to you, and you didn’t tell me?! What does he say?!”  
“Well…” Eren shrugged slightly, “He mostly insults me…”   
“I think I like him already,” Jean laughed.  
“And… It’s a merman, not a mermaid… He’ll get upset if you call him that,” Eren sighed, rolling his eyes, “But don’t tell Professor Hanji about it, she’ll get really excited and try to communicate with him as well, and he has no interest in other people than me, it seems…”   
“So… You’re his bitch?” Jean smirked.   
“Jean, stop it,” Marco said with a sigh, putting a hand on the other’s shoulder, just as Annie returned with the group’s drinks and everyone shut up about their mermaid-talk.   
“We would appreciate if you could all calm down. You’re scaring our customers,” Annie muttered, “Anything else?” She blew a bubble with her chewing cum, raising an eyebrow to look at Armin, believing that he was the brain of the group - which he was.   
“No thanks, Annie, we’re fine,” Armin smiled, “We’ll try to calm down…”   
“You better,” she muttered as she returned to her more calm customers, leaving the group alone once again.   
And everyone aimed their glares at Eren again.   
“Why didn’t you tell me about this?” Armin asked again, leaning over the table a little bit while he took a sip of his water with ice cubes and lemon.   
“Uhm… I forgot?” Eren smiled weakly, “No, really… I just didn’t think he’d be happy to know that.”   
“Eren, he’s a fish, I don’t think he cares about that,” Jean muttered from the opposite side of the table, as if he had a say in this case - he wasn’t even a part of their class, so it wasn’t his business.   
“He’s not a fish, he’s half human - well, his upper half is…” Eren took a long slurp of his Coke.   
“He didn’t look much like a human when we saw him…” Marco quietly added, afraid that Eren would lash out at him as well.   
“Yeah, about that—…” Eren started, but was cut short because of his phone alarm going off, telling him that it was feeding time. Yes, feeding time. He had a pet fish to take care of, apparently - or at least it felt like that. Since Levi needed food every day, and he refused to accept Hanji’s food, it was all up to Eren to do the job.   
“Shit, oh, I gotta go, guys,” Eren said,   
“Now what? Do you have other plans, Eren?” Armin raised an eyebrow.   
“Well, yeah… I sorta have to go feed Levi,” Eren admitted, “He only accepts my food, for some odd reason…”   
“Maybe the fish is crushing on you, man,” Jean laughed as he leaned back in his chair, “A girl might not be able to find you attractive, but hey! Maybe a mermaid will.”   
“Jean, stop it,” Marco said as he gently elbowed Jean in the side before he looked at Eren, “S-Sorry about that, Eren, he didn’t mean it like that.”   
“I know what he meant, Marco,” Eren rolled his eyes, “Anyway, I’ll take my leave, see ya in school Monday!” The brunette then dashed out of the cafe, leaving a half empty glass of Coke on the table.

______________

  
“Ah, Eren! I was starting to worry that you didn’t come today,” Hanji said, faking a small pout as she had succeeded in stopping the brunette in the hallway on his way to the room where they kept the merman, “He’s been doing nothing but hissing and haring his sharp teeth at us all day… I would really like to take some measurements of that tail of his, you know…” the professor complained to Eren, gently pulling his sleeve as if he was able to fulfill her request.   
“I’ll—… I’ll see what I can do, professor…” Eren sighed, pulling his arm away from the more or less mad professor who immediately made a victorious hand gesture.  
“You’re the man, Eren!” she called after the teen, though he just waved her off while he prepared himself to get his daily dose of insults and hissing. The bright lights from the ceiling immediately blinds him as he steps inside the room and closes the sliding doors after him, preventing Hanji or any other scientist or professor from entering - Eren knew very well, that Levi didn’t want to communicate with anyone else but him, for some odd reason.   
Honestly, he didn’t exactly complain about it.   
Eren turned the light down a little bit, thinking that it must’ve been annoying to the merman as well, to constantly be in a room with such bright lightning.   
And there he was, the merman. He was lying on the bottom of his aquarium, his tail wrapped around himself, as if he was lying in a small nest of his own. His back was arched, and Eren could see how his spine was showing through the blue fish scales on his back - small spikes were pointing out from every single vertebra in his spine.   
“Levi?” Eren carefully called, as it seemed that the merman was sleeping, but as soon as the name left Eren’s lips, the merman’s scaly ears perked up and he immediately turned to face the brunette with a pair of wide eyes, that clearly showed a small hint of surprise in them.   
Something was telling Eren, that he hadn’t been awaited.   
A faint smile appeared on Eren’s lips as he made his way up the stairs to the same platform he was always sitting on, when he had to spend some time with Levi. It didn’t take many seconds before Levi was at the surface either, and in his human appearance as well - skin and flesh instead of scales and more scales.   
“Eren,” the merman said, his steel gray eyes still showing some surprise in them.   
“What? You didn’t think I’d come back to you?” Eren raised an eyebrow as he sat down with his notebook, “I don’t exactly have a choice, you know.”   
“That’s not what I—…” Levi closed his eyes and shook his head, “It’s nothing, but it’s just so boring in here without anyone to keep me company, so…”   
“Aw, did you miss me?” Eren asked in a teasing tone as he looked at the merman, who immediately glared at the teen, a small hiss emerging from his thin lips.   
“Don’t push your luck, human. Just because I’m bored, it doesn’t mean I would miss someone like you,” Levi began, but the frown on his face quickly disappeared once again as he eyed the teen, “Even though… Something seems different about you, human.”   
“Oh? What’s that? Well, I did take a shower this morning if that’s what you mean,” Eren laughed softly.   
“No, that’s not it,” Levi glared as he grabbed the edge of the platform and pulled himself a bit up, resting his hands on it for support, trying to pull himself a bit closer to the brunette. He narrowed his eyes a little bit as he looked Eren up and down a few times, “You humans are strange creatures… You have been mating, haven’t you?”   
“W-Whoa… What?! No?! Mating?!” Eren almost dropped his notebook as he stared at the merman with wide eyes, “I—… I don’t even have a girlfriend, how could I even—…?!”   
“No, you haven’t been mating, that’s not it…” Levi continued, a faint smirk appearing on his lips, as if he hadn’t been listening to what Eren had told him, “You’ve satisfied yourself, haven’t you? You dirty human…” He furrowed his brows a bit.   
“What… How can you even say that…?” Eren quietly asked, a faint blush starting to show on his cheeks, “I—… I haven’t—…”   
“Hooh…?” Levi pulled away from Eren again, back to the water in his aquarium, “It’s quite obvious, you know. I can see it in your eyes. Your sexual frustration from last time is all gone now.”   
Eren could feel his whole face burning now, all the way up to his ears. His heart was beating slightly fast, due to his embarrassment. He did remember that last time he was with the merman, the merman had touched his legs in a slightly inappropriate way, which might or might not have turned him on ever so slightly. Then he had returned home, where he—… Oh gosh, he had been masturbating while thinking about his fucking pet fish.   
He suddenly felt the urge to shower.   
“Oh, I’m sorry… Isn’t it something you humans usually talk about?” Levi asked, faking an apologetic facial expression, which resulted in the creature grinning lowly at the brunette, “Seems like I was right, though.”   
“So—…” Eren cleared his throat, “Now that you know a little bit about my private life…”   
“Let me guess, you want to take some tests on me now?” Levi glared at Eren while he rested his upper half on the platform. He didn’t sound very amused about the fact that he had to be touched by those filthy hands of a human.   
“My professor wanted me to take some measurements, so… If you don’t mind?” Eren moved a little bit closer to the edge of the platform as he looked at the merman.   
“You are telling me, that you’ll have to touch me?” Levi glared up at the brunette, “You must be out of your mind.”   
“You touched me yesterday, what’s the difference?” Eren asked as he positioned himself in a cross-legged position with his notebook in his lap. Levi let out a small growl of disapproval before he turned his face a bit away from the younger, narrowing his eyes and probably deciding whether or not he should let the human touch him.   
“Fine,” he spat, “But it’ll be one time only, understood? If you try to touch me again another time, I’ll bite your hand off.”   
“Understood,” Eren sighed as he put his notebook down and moved closer, “Let me help you up on the platform, then.” He reached his hands out to the merman, though Levi just watched the human’s hands, judging if they were clean enough to touch. Even though he had been touching his feet and legs the day before, this was different. Eren would be touching him, too - something that hadn’t occurred before.   
Levi hissed something under his breath as he reached his webbed hands out, holding onto Eren’s wrists, and Eren holding onto his. He felt the brunette sliding his hands up his arms, until he could grab him under his arms, getting a stronger hold and easier lifting him onto the platform. Levi was sitting against the railing, the tip of his tail still in the water.  
“Jesus! You’re heavy!” Eren groaned from exhaustion.   
“My name is Levi, not Jesus. Did you forget already?” Levi narrowed his eyes, clearly having no idea who Jesus was.   
“O-Oh… No, it’s—… Never mind,” Eren sighed heavily, mentally preparing himself for what was about to happen.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren and Levi spends some alone-time~ wub wub... And Eren's a dork~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had so much trouble writing this chapter... I think I re-wrote it three or four times, changing my mind two times about what was going to happen in this chapter... ;;^;;   
> *Sobbing quietly*   
> I still hope you like it, though... I did my very best. ;;^;; And I'll try to update the next chapter asap~! I know what's gonna happen in that one, huehuehue...

It was getting slightly late, and the sun had just gone down, but Eren really had to finish this before heading home. Luckily, there was no school tomorrow, but that didn’t mean Eren wasn’t exhausted. He let out a small sigh as he watched the sky through the window in the ceiling - there was close to no light from the Sun left, and the moon was coming out.

“Hah… Looks like it’s full moon tonight,” Eren sighed, “That means no sleep for me, anyway…” He let out a small growl, knowing that it was impossible for him to get any sleep when the full moon was out, and tonight it seemed to be even larger than usual, shining even brighter than ever before.

“Just great…” Eren frowned.

Levi was sitting right next to him on the platform while Eren mentally prepared himself to take some measurements, and hoping that he wouldn’t suddenly get attacked. Hanji had requested that he should measure as much as he possibly could, so Eren decided to start from the top, and then make his way towards the bottom. The first thing he was going to measure, was Levi’s fin ears, but Levi certainly didn’t seem very happy with that as soon as Eren told him.

“Why?” Levi asked in the usual, cold voice.

“It’s—… Just something I have to do, Levi… Please help me out here,” Eren nearly begged. He knew that they weren’t exactly friends, but he also knew that Levi wanted to get out of here as fast as possible. If we didn’t get Levi’s consent, then he was afraid that Levi would suddenly turn his head and bite off his hand.

“Fine, just hurry the fuck up,” Levi furrowed his thin eyebrows and narrowed his eyes at Eren, “And if you try anything funny, I’ll bite your hands off, got it?”

Eren was right about the biting.

“G-Got it,” Eren managed to stutter out while he held the measuring tape carefully against the fin that made out Levi’s “ear”, and he soon realized why Levi didn’t want him to touch it. As soon as Eren tried to stretch it out a bit, like you could do with any fish’s fins, a small sound made its way up Levi’s throat, though the merman gritted his teeth in order to hold it back as much as possible.

The noise sounded something like a muffled moan.

Eren blinked a few times in confusion, not being completely sure what he just heard, so he decided to ‘accidentally’ brush two of his fingertips against the fin, stroking along it a single time - and just as he thought; the merman let out a frustrated groan as he turned his head away from Eren, turning his fins out of reach of the human.

“… You’re—…” Eren muttered quietly, looking at the annoyed merman.

“Don’t you fucking say it,” Levi threatened in a low voice with his hands clenched by his sides, “Just continue already! Pathetic human…”

Eren found it rather amusing that apparently the merman was quite sensitive around what would be the ear area, but he decided to hide it from the merman. He appreciated his hands and his face, and didn’t want the creature to scratch or bite anything off.

Instead, he decided to clear his throat, trying to make some of the awkward tension between them disappear while he continued to take some measurements around his shoulders.

Then he remembered, that it was actually the first time Eren was touching Levi, and holy Maria - he was buff! As Eren carefully let his fingers slide over Levi’s skin, he realized that it was incredibly soft too; soft, but still rough. There were even quite a few scars across Levi’s back, chest and shoulders. One scar was bigger than the other, and Eren was afraid to ask how he even got those.

So instead, he tried to focus on the task ahead of him.

“Please flex your arm…” Eren said as he held the measuring tape loosely around Levi’s upper arm. The merman’s skin feeling like silk, though still a bit cold from being in the even colder water. His skin and scales were slowly starting to turn dry, though.   
Levi flexed his arm, just like Eren had asked him to, and the teenager watched how the muscles in his upper body moved, showing the obviously very prominent sixpack that the merman had. Apart from that, his chest was ripped, with a few water drops running down his torso - Eren suddenly felt a small hunch of jealousy.

He suddenly wanted to be a drop of water…

“Hooh? What are you doing?” Levi asked, raising an eyebrow at the teenager, who had stopped moving a few seconds ago.

“Ah! N-Nothing,” Eren managed to stutter out as he focused on taking the measurement of Levi’s flexed upper arm, though that didn’t make anything much better. The merman’s arms were matching his chiseled chest, and Eren’s eyes took in the sight of the creature’s muscles and veins being visible through his skin. Eren suddenly felt a strange feeling in the lower part of his stomach which he did his very best to ignore.

“Say… While I take these measurements, then why don’t you tell me a little bit about your world?” Eren suggested, being sure that the awkward silence between them would disappear that way. Levi let out a small sigh while Eren very quickly finished taking the measurements of his chest, immediately moving on to the stomach.

“Ah… I don’t know what’s to tell… We aren’t that many anymore, sadly…” Levi frowned ever so slightly as he spoke, “Sure, we do have these packs that we usually swim around with, and we do have a few cities in the deepest parts of the ocean, but… It’s still kinda boring at times.”

“Oh?” Eren asked, tilting his head a little bit, “How come you’re not that many anymore?” The teenager realized that it might have been a bad decision to ask such a question, because Levi’s webbed hands were clenching into a pair of fists along his sides, the veins along his lower arms showing.

“Because of water pollution we had to abandon a lot of our cities, moving to new places where we’re in danger… We—… We aren’t exactly friends with sharks and the like, you see…” he frowned, looking a little bit down, his facial expression turning a bit sad in thought.

“I—… I’m sorry,” Eren said quietly, not knowing what to say exactly. Levi was the first merman he had ever met or seen, so he didn’t know much about what was happening under the surface of the water… Especially because of the fact that he was frightened of water, hence he wouldn’t be able to find out anyway.

“It doesn’t matter…” Levi sighed, “Even though some packs are trying to breed as much as possible in order to save the population… It’s not enough.”

“That’s… That’s so sad,” Eren whispered quietly, his gaze moving slightly down.

“What is?” Levi asked, looking at Eren with slightly surprised eyes.

“Well… I don’t know how you merpeople see it, but… Mating, isn’t exactly something I think you should just do with anyone… It’s supposed to be enjoyed by both parts, it’s supposed to-…” Eren was talking too much, he realized, so he shut himself up and let out a deep sigh instead, “Sorry, just forget what I said.”

“No, I understand what you mean,” Levi said, making Eren look back up at him almost instantly. Levi’s gaze was resting on Eren, and the teenager felt how his heart was swooning in his chest. Levi’s raven hair, white skin and sapphire scales were like shining in the light from the full moon above them. It made him look Godly, and suddenly Eren believed that every fairytale was true.

Every fairytale about the beautiful creatures called mermaids.

“You… Do?” Eren asked, raising an eyebrow in suspicion. He didn’t get how Levi could understand his way of thinking, since their worlds were so different.

“Yes, Eren,” Levi was now looking away from him again, “How much do you know about those animals… Penguins, I think they’re called in your language?”

“Penguins?” Eren questioned, blinking unknowingly at the random change of subject.

“Yes, merpeople are surprisingly a lot like them,” Levi turned to look at the water in his aquarium which was almost still by now, apart from the spot where the tip of his tail was breaking through the surface.

“How?” the teenager moved a bit closer to Levi, being curious now.

“Penguins only have one partner for their whole life, Eren,” Levi said, looking back at the teenager all of a sudden, sending a small shock through his body which made him pull a bit away from him again, realizing that he had been too close for comfort.

“Oh… I heard about that…” Eren admitted.

“Merpeople are the same, yet different…” Levi eyed Eren up and down a few times, until his gaze stopped at what seemed to be Eren’s chest.

“How…?” Eren seemed to ask quite a lot of questions.

“We don’t choose our own mate. We don’t feel such things like love… We actually don’t give a shit about who we fuck and who we don’t, it’s a part of our animalistic instincts” Levi said, moving closer to Eren by every word, making the teenager feel very, very small all of a sudden.

“That is,” Levi muttered, his face only a few inches away from Eren’s, “Until we find our mate… Then we will only be with him or her, for the rest of our life, and something similar to your ‘love’ will happen…”

“That’s interesting,” Eren admitted in a low whisper, “But how do you know who your mate is?”

“No one knows what triggers it, but suddenly we just know,” Levi said, his voice just as quiet as Eren’s as he moved his webbed hand up to gently grab Eren’s chin, turning his face towards his own.

“L-Levi,” Eren stuttered ever so slightly, feeling his heart being stuck in his throat once again.

“What is it, huma—… Eren?” Levi quickly corrected himself.

“Have you—… Found your mate yet?” Eren forced himself to ask, though he didn’t regret it one bit once the words left his mouth.

“I haven’t,” Levi admitted, his hand still holding Eren’s chin with their faces just a few inches apart from each other.

At that time, the light from the moon seemed to hit Levi, in such a captivating, special way. His raven hair had this silver glow to it, his skin almost giving off the same, pale glow as the moon itself while his muscles were like sculpted by the shadows the moon was creating. His sapphire tail shone like the scales themselves were a million sapphire stones, matching the glimpse of diamond in his gray eyes.

“You’re—… Beautiful…” Eren heard himself stutter, being unaware of the words leaving his lips before it was too late, and he felt himself holding his breath. Levi furrowed his thin eyebrows once again, and after a few seconds of silence he pulled away from Eren, looking the other way.

“What the hell are you talking about, Eren,” Levi muttered quietly, his face unchanged.

“Ah—… I’m sorry, it’s just…” Eren looked away from Levi, clearing his throat, “Your tail… It’s beautiful.” He tried to save himself on the edge of embarrassing the shit out of him.

“Hooh? My tail?” Levi asked, raising an eyebrow as he looked at his long, sapphire blue fish tail. Granted, Levi didn’t think anything about his tail was beautiful, he was used to looking at it every single day of his life. He clenched his jaw a little bit, hesitating about what he was about to say.

“… You can touch it, if that’s what you want,” Levi muttered quietly, and Eren’s eyes immediately grew wide, almost shining.

“Just don’t shit yourself in excitement,” Levi quickly added.

“A-Alright!” Eren said, his smile wide as he moved next to Levi while looking down at the merman’s tail. The scales were still sparkling and shining like the sapphires they could easily be mistaken for being. Eren swallowed thickly just before he reached out to touch it - he touched the tail a little below Levi’s hips, and the slightly slimy, yet smooth surface, was soon against Eren’s fingertips. The surface of Levi’s tail was almost dry by now, but that didn’t keep it from being shiny and slimy.

Just like a real fish’s, just even more stunning.

“Wow,” Eren breathed while Levi was just watching him in silence, completely fascinated how anyone could be so excited about his tail - there was nothing special about it, really.

Eren was quite a special creature, Levi thought to himself. The human didn’t get affected by his songs, as the only one. He wasn’t scared of him, he even thought his tail was beautiful.

A small, weak smile slowly made its way to Levi’s lips, the merman hoping Eren wouldn’t notice - but luckily he was still too caught up in Levi’s tail.

“Eh, Levi?” Eren asked, suddenly, “How do you actually mate? I mean—…” Eren was suddenly blushing all over his face as he leaned a bit away from Levi again, removing his hands from the tail.

“You mean… What?” Levi blinked a few times, feeling slightly taken aback by the sudden question.

“It’s just—… You mentioned that you mate… How?” Eren was now looking at Levi again, “I can’t see any genitals, or anything… I mean.”

“… I’m not fucking flashing for you,” Levi glared at Eren, “I’m not that kind of fish.”

“T-That’s not what I meant!!” Eren exclaimed in protest.

“Tch…” Levi clicked his tongue before he pushed himself off the platform, diving back into the water in his aquarium, away from Eren. The merman was feeling a mix between being slightly flustered, and very offended.

“L-Levi!” Eren exclaimed, crawling to the edge of the platform, grabbing it as he looked down into the deep water, watching as Levi was in the far end of the aquarium - he really didn’t want to talk to Eren right now, it seemed. Eren realized that he might have offended him quite a lot, and he had to admit, that even he himself would’ve been upset about this. 

Eren had just indirectly asked Levi to flash his genitals for him, one way or another.

“Levi! For fuck’s sake!” Eren yelled, “I didn’t want you to flash them?!” 

He knew Levi could hear him, even if the merman was ignoring him. He knew that Eren’s voice was reaching out to him through the water, because Levi had earlier told him that the reason he knew so many different languages, was because his hearing was so good that he could listen to conversations aboard ships, boats, and even near the coasts while he was underwater. 

“Fucking stubborn—…” Eren swore under his breath as his fist hit the platform he was sitting on his knees on - but somehow he managed to slip under the wet, slippery surface where Levi had been sitting earlier, falling head-first towards the water. He gasped in shock! He tried to reach out for the edge of the platform, or even the railing, to keep himself from falling into the water - but it was too late. 

The sound of a loud splash echoed throughout the whole room as Eren’s body met the surface of the water. He instantly fell towards the bottom of the aquarium, arms waving wildly and legs kicking to no avail. He couldn’t swim - hell, he was panicking so he couldn’t even try to swim no matter how hard he tried. 

The water quickly made its way down his throat and into his lungs as he helplessly, soundlessly, gasped for air under the water. 

His vision turned blurry, his energy being drained from his sinking body. Some sort of deja-vu feeling rushed through his body, just before he lost consciousness. 

Everything went black, and an unfamiliar voice sounded in his head.

 

_“Say… What’s your name, little one?”_

_“E—… Eren…”_

_“Eren… You’re going to be alright, okay?”_

_Okay…”_

 

It was a woman’s voice, mixed with the sound of the ocean waves in his mind.

Were those memories, or his imagination?

He couldn’t remember…


	11. The Annoying Beeping Noise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren's close-to-death experience reveals some interesting things...

_A small gasp left Eren’s lips as he tore his eyes open. There was a slightly stinging pain in them, making his green eyes feel dry and making his usually good sight go blurry. The taste of salt water were running all the way down his throat, and some of it was even stuck in his young lungs as he had tried too hard to breathe underwater._

_“Are you okay, little one?” the woman’s voice said as she tightened her grip around the boy’s small frame._

_That was when Eren realized where he was._

_They were swimming in the middle of the ocean with no land in sight in any direction. The sun was burning hot, shining down on them after a heavy storm that had driven Eren all the way out here, away from land and away from his family and home._

_“Where… Am I?” he asked, his childish voice almost being too hoarse to make a sound. This was when he was just a little boy, the one time he remembered he almost drowned. One of his punctured water wings were still wrapped around his arm while the other were long gone, lost somewhere in the ocean._

_“You’re in the ocean with me right now, little one… You’re going to be alright,” the woman’s kind voice said again and that was when Eren looked up at her to see her kind, motherly face. Her eyes were steel gray, but still warm and kind just like her soul turned out to be by saving a stranger. Her hair was long and dark, shining in the light from the sun like the purest silk that Eren could feel his hands urge slightly to touch. The woman’s face looked tired, exhausted, like someone who had been fighting too hard for too long, like someone who didn’t have much time left and were well aware of it._

_That was when Eren realized that something seemed off about this stranger._

_Her ears - they were scaly and pointy…_

 

Soon Eren’s vision turned dark and his surroundings disappeared around him as his memories faded. He was left, floating in nothingness. He started to feel cold and lonely as the silence closed in around him. He could barely hear his own heart beat in his ears anymore, and even noticed that he had stopped breathing at some point, and no matter what he did - he wasn’t able to start breathing again.

He wanted to struggle against the darkness that seemed to have captured him, but he couldn’t move his limbs.

Even his eyes started to grow tired, and he wished that he was back in the arms of the creature that saved him many years ago. He wished that he were back in the arms of something that might remind him of a mother, or anyone that cared like one.

No, not like a motherly figure…

He just wanted to be held by someone, all of a sudden. To feel someone’s warmth in this cold nothingness.

“Ere—…”

There was a faint sound, breaking the silence around him.

“Eren…”

The sound, that seemed like a voice became clearer, became louder.

“Eren!”

The voice was completely clear now and as it forced the darkness, surrounding Eren, away. His ears were met with an annoying, constant, beeping sound, which slowly grew louder and slower - and when he finally opened his eyes, he realized that he wasn’t with Levi anymore.

The person next to him, calling his name like a maniac, was professor Hanji - even though he could have sworn that the voice calling his name had belonged to Levi.

“Ha—…” Eren opened his mouth and tried to speak, but the only sound that came out, was a forced whisper, which hurt his throat all the way down to his lungs. He was having a hard time trying to speak, so he just sent Hanji a confused stare instead, which made the professor calm down once again.

“Oh, Eren! We thought we had lost you!” Hanji exclaimed, her voice being annoyingly loud for Eren’s ears.  
Eren then started to look around the room and realized, that he wasn’t at the aquarium anymore. He was, in fact, lying in a warm bed in an unknown, white room. His skin felt incredibly cold and dry, and his throat felt like it was clenching itself in cramps.

“Oh, you’re probably wondering where you are…?” Hanji assumed as she observed Eren’s confused look on his face as he skimmed the room. “Well… You’re at the hospital, Eren…”  
The teenager’s eyes grew wide and he turned to stare at Hanji in disbelief. He didn’t dare to open his mouth and try to speak again, so he just folded his hands and waited for the professor to tell him what had happened.

But then…

“Eren…” Hanji’s voice turned rather serious as she looked at the young boy through her glasses, “Did you know that Levi was able to talk?”

Eren felt a small tug at his heart at that question. His eyes grew wide in surprise, and for a moment Hanji wasn’t very sure what to make of this, but she just kept her calm and waited patiently for Eren’s answer. The teenager looked away from his professor, his cheeks getting slightly warmer by every second as he thought about Levi.

Had the merman been speaking to Hanji, or something?

Exactly what had happened in the aquarium? Had Eren, perhaps, fallen in the water and…

“Eren, you almost drowned…” Hanji calmly explained, followed by a small sigh, “You fell in the water and almost immediately blacked out… I just happened to walk into the room at that time, seeing you in the arms of the creature, and a somewhat… Panicked… Look on his face…”

_Wait, Levi had a panicked look on his face?!_

Eren immediately turned his head to look at his professor again, his green eyes wide. To think that the merman would even give a fuck about his life surprised him - he thought that the merman would’ve wanted to kill him by the first chance he got, especially since his singing didn’t affect him.

“Oh?” Hanji’s lips turned into a small smile at Eren’s reaction, but then she just continued the explanation, “Anyway…”

_Hanji’s eyes grew wide as she took in the sight in front of her. She dropped whatever books, notes and papers she had in her arms, and ran towards the aquarium, where an unconscious Eren were being held in the arms of the creature - the merman - that they had caught a few days ago. The merman, however, didn’t look anything like the day he was caught, and Hanji even thought that he looked somewhat human - and a handsome one at that._

_His black hair almost covered his worried, panicking eyes as he held Eren above the water, trying to wake him up, without actually knowing what to do. His eyes were quivering, his breathing shaking._

_However, as soon as he saw Hanji from the corner of his eyes, his face immediately switched into something that looked like one of a furious predator, protecting its child or mate. His eyes turned from gray to black, and a hiss left his thin lips._

_Hanji was way too excited about the merman’s behavior, especially since Eren was still unconscious, so she bit back her excitement and maniacally screaming, in order to focus on the task ahead - she needed to get a hold on Eren, and think about what had happened later on._

_She quickly got to the upper level of the staircase, the platform Eren had been taking care of the merman from, and the platform that he had fallen from._

_The merman held Eren closer to his body, glaring at Hanji is distrust as she tried to think of a way to get a hold of Eren, a sight of panic visible on her face while she cursed under her breath for actually letting a teenager - who couldn’t swim - alone with a merman of all things._

_“S—… Save him…”_

_“E-Eh?” Hanji immediately stared at the merman, whose face was still somewhat furious, yet scared. Hanji’s eyes grew wide, and she nearly dropped her glasses as she gaped - the merman could speak!_

_“Save him…” the merman almost growled, forcing himself to speak to Hanji as he clearly not seemed like wanting to do so, “Save him, or else… I swear I’ll rip your throat out.”_

 

Hanji leaned back in her chair after her explanation, and Eren just stared at her in disbelief.

“Mike came to help, and we somehow got you breathing again, but… You were still unconscious… We weren’t able to get through to the ambulance by phone, so we drove you to the hospital ourselves, since it was a matter of time before it would be too late,” Hanji frowned a little bit, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have left you alone with the merman, especially because you can’t swim… I’ll take you off the task of taking care of the merman…”

Hanji immediately felt Eren grab her hands and a pair of sad, green eyes met hers. He furiously shook his head and looked at her as if he was begging her not to.

“… E-Eren, you almost drowned back there…” Hanji explained, “I’m responsible for your well-being while you’re in the marine biology building, and—…”

“P-… Please,” Eren breathed out, his dry throat hurting as he did.

“Do you really care that much about him?” Hanji carefully asked, letting a sigh leave her lips, “Okay… But for now, I’ll take you off the task - until you feel better, alright?”

Eren gave a small nod as he looked down. Even though he hadn’t been away from Levi for very long, he was already longing to see him again, especially now that he knew the merman somewhat cared for him. His heart started beating faster at the thought and a small smile appeared on his lips as he imagined Levi’s concerned, worried face inside his head.

“Eren…?” Hanji carefully asked with a raised eyebrow.

Eren smiled a little at her and nodded, tilting his head to the side.

“… Do you, perhaps… Like the merman?” she smirked while Eren’s cheeks turned into a dark red color, all the way up to his ears. The teenager wanted to ask how she would think that, because it was a stupid assumption, right?

But then he realized that the annoying, beeping sound that he had been hearing ever since he became conscious again, had gotten faster - a lot faster, matching his heartbeat perfectly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry that I haven't been able to update for a long time! ;;3;; the story isn't dead, I promise! I really want to finish this story, so don't worry! uwu  
> I've just been pretty busy ... Cosplays, moving... And the like... But now I've got some time off!  
> I hope you enjoyed this chapter...


	12. Black Suits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren has been having a few days off, and meanwhile there's been some suspicious activity around the school...

A small sigh left Eren’s lips as he sat at his desk, watching the screen on his computer while he made his character in the game run through a small town. He was slightly annoyed that Hanji wouldn’t let him inside the aquarium, even if he had been close to drowning two days earlier. The drowning wasn’t Levi’s fault, in fact - Levi actually saved him, and didn’t eat him like he might have feared he would. Hanji explained that she would let Armin or Marco take care of the merman for the time being. 

But Eren didn’t like that at all. 

He was the one who was supposed to take care of Levi, he was the one who was supposed to feed him, measure him, and observe him. Levi didn’t like other people than him, besides they would be in danger since he could kill them with ease with his voice, since they were affected by it. 

Compared to Eren, who still didn’t quite understand why he wasn’t affected by his singing at all. 

He was supposed to be hypnotized when Levi had started singing, but he wasn’t.

He had been away from Levi for almost two days now, being told by Hanji that he should stay home from school as well, so that he would be able to recover completely - but honestly, those two days had been like hell! He had been so bored, and for the first time in his whole life, he couldn’t wait to get back to school. 

To get back to Levi…

“God damn it!” Eren exclaimed as his character, a level 61 human paladin, was assassinated by a blood elf rogue, whose level was way too high for the zone, just as he traveled through Hellfire Peninsula. Eren was close to smashing a hand on his keyboard, but was able to stop himself from doing so just in time. He suddenly remembered, once again, why he hated to play on PVP servers in World of Warcraft - it was bullshit, especially when he was the one being killed all the time by other players who didn’t give a shit if their level was too high compared to his own. 

“You little fucker…” Eren growled at the player, who didn’t even bother to stop up before running away from his character’s corpse. It was probably a good thing, that you weren’t able to communicate with players of the opposite faction, otherwise that blood elf would get hell from Eren - which would probably end with Eren being banned for a month or two for inappropriate behavior. 

Again. 

“Eren,” Mikasa asked as she suddenly stood in the doorway, nearly giving Eren a heart attack. 

“Mikasa! Learn to knock!” Eren groaned in annoyance, but his sister just raised an eyebrow at him. 

“The door was open, dumbass…” she rolled her eyes, “Besides, your professor is on my phone, since you’re apparently too lost in your game to pick up your own.”

“Eh? Professor Hanji is?!” Eren immediately pushed his chair out and dashed out of his room, on the way to Mikasa’s. 

“My phone is in the living room, by the way…” Mikasa muttered and a few seconds later, Eren came running past her again, this time towards the living room. 

He hoped that Hanji would ask him to get back to the aquarium and take care of Levi again. He hoped that Levi had splashed water at his new caretaker in protest of Eren being absent. He hoped that Levi… 

Wait, why exactly did he hope all of that? 

Was it a hunch of jealousy Eren could feel in his chest? Because he wasn’t able to see Levi himself? 

He picked up the phone that Mikasa had left on the sofa and sat down. He swallowed thickly before opening his mouth to speak. 

“P-Professor?” 

“ _Eren_!” Hanji exclaimed on the other end of the line, “ _I’ve been trying to reach you all day_!”

“I’m sorry, I’ve been… Busy,” Eren muttered quietly, “Is there a problem with Levi?” 

 _“Well, you see… We haven’t been able to make him eat anything at all, so_ …” Hanji explained slowly, sounding a little bit embarrassed as she did so, “If _you’re feeling better, then how do you feel about stopping by here later or tomorrow?_ ”

“Ah, already,” Eren said, a small smile on his lips as he had kinda been hoping this would happen. 

 _“Yeah… He’s been hissing at the all of us if we got too close, and he changed his appearance back to his… Beasty one, too…_ ” Hanji said with a small laugh in her voice, _“And he’s been threatening with singing again, so… I can’t take any more risks.”_

“I understand, professor,” Eren said, sighing slightly, “I’ll come by as soon as possible.” 

_“You’re a savior, Eren!!”_

“Bye…” Eren said before hanging up and putting the phone back on the couch - but as soon as he looked up, he was met with Mikasa’s serious stare right next to him. 

“You’re going… Where, exactly?” she asked, furrowing her brows. 

“Ah… It’s… A part of the assignment, you see,” Eren explained with a small smile on his lips, “I have to go meet up at the aquarium again as soon as possible…” 

“Eren, it’s past eight already,” Mikasa stated, “Surely the assignment will be able to wait until tomorrow, right?” 

“It—… It can’t, I’m sorry,” Eren tried to explain, but he wasn’t sure how he could. He couldn’t just tell her that he had to take care of a merman and feed it. Mikasa was already upset about the fact that Eren had had an accident two days prior - an accident she still hadn’t been explained completely, she believed. 

“Eren…” Mikasa sighed, “You’ve been avoiding me a lot lately… What is it that you’re not telling me?” 

“I—…” Eren mumbled, looking away from his sister’s sad, dark eyes. He felt bad for keeping this secret from her, but… 

There was suddenly a knock at the door, which forced Eren to - luckily - get off the couch and go get the door. This way he wouldn’t have to deal with Mikasa’s questions, and he could probably avoid answering them for another few hours it seemed. 

He was, indeed, saved by the door bell. 

“Coming!” Eren said just before he opened the door, being met with a smiling, blond coconut— eerrh, Armin. His otherwise always dashing smile looked a little bit forced that evening, and a pair of scratching marks were visible on his hands and arms it seemed. 

“… Oh,” was all Eren could say before he forced a small smile onto his own lips, “Levi?” 

“Yeah, your stupid, grumpy fish boyfriend did this to me,” Armin said with his soft, sweet voice, but his tone was dangerously scary as he spoke. 

“H-He’s not my…” Eren almost yelled, only to realize that Mikasa would probably be able to hear their conversation if they continued to speak. 

“Let’s go outside…” Eren suggested, to which made Armin open his mouth a little bit like a small “o”, before he gave a nod. 

The weather was gray and boring, a little bit of rain fell from the sky - it wasn’t a lot, but a little bit almost like dust. It quickly made Eren’s green hoodie feel rather damp though, but he agreed with himself that he would be able to take it off once he got back to the aquarium anyway. 

“What’s been going on at the aquarium, Armin?” Eren asked as they walked towards the school - Armin didn’t have to go back, but his house was on the way there anyway. 

“The merman has refused to eat anything at all, even if we served the same as you used to…” Armin sighed, running a hand through his slightly wet hair as he closed his eyes to think, “He’s started to talk, though… But it’s not like he wants to communicate with any of us…” 

“How can he be speaking if he doesn’t want to communicate?” Eren asked, a small groan leaving his lips as the rain got slightly heavier. He pulled his hood over his head in a poor attempt to shield his brown hair. 

“He’s just been complaining…” Armin rolled his eyes, “He’s been saying things like; ‘if it’s not Eren, I don’t want anyone to feed me’, ‘don’t you dare come any closer to me, you’re not Eren’, and things like that… Hence the reason we’ve all been joking that he’s like a boyfriend to you.” Armin smirked at Eren, a small laugh leaving his lips. 

“O-Oh…” Eren stuttered, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. He honestly really like the fact that Levi didn’t let anyone else but Eren get close to him… 

“Say, Eren,” Armin began, “Do you actually like the merman?” 

“W-Whoa—… Of course I don’t!” the taller teen quickly said, but suddenly stopped in his movements as he saw something odd, close to the Marine Biology building at the school. 

There was a person, a stranger, whom he had never seen before. 

It was a man, about his own height - possibly a bit taller. He had two-colored hair in an odd undercut, his longer hair being slightly curly. He was wearing a black suit, dark sunglasses and what seemed like an ear piece, like he was some kind of bodyguard, agent or the like. 

He was speaking with someone, it seemed, as he was pushing a button on his ear piece while watching his surroundings. 

“Who’s…” Armin furrowed his eyebrows as he had obviously caught sight of the same thing as Eren - but as soon as the man realized they were looking at him, he decided to end his conversation with whoever he had been talking to, and walk away in the opposite direction than Eren and Armin. 

“That was… Odd,” Armin said, grumbling a little bit. 

“What about it, Armin?” Eren asked as they slowly started walking towards the building again. 

“Hanji mentioned that she had seen a couple of people in black suits on the school grounds lately… I think he might be one of them,” Armin explained, crossing his arms, “They’re obviously not students, and I highly doubt they’re teachers either… So what are they doing here?” 

“Maybe they’re interested in the Marine Biology we study here?” Eren said, but quickly realized it might be an odd suggestion. 

“… I’m afraid that you’re partly right,” Armin replied as he looked up at Eren with a worried expression on his face, “What if…” 

“Levi?!” Eren exclaimed as he immediately started running towards the Marine Biology building, serious worry visible on his facial expression. He was scared that something might’ve happened to Levi, or something might soon happen to Levi. 

People in black suits were never something good to see, especially not when something as classified as a merman was involved. 

“Professor!” Eren called as he entered the building, stepping inside the large hall, “Professor Zoe!” 

“Eren! Thank the Heavens!” Hanji sighed deeply, running a hand through her hair which was pulled back into a messy ponytail - messier than usual. 

“What’s going on? What’s this thing about people in suits watching the school grounds these days?” Eren furrowed his brows, meanwhile Armin had caught up and stood by his side, earning a worried look from Hanji. 

“Oh, you told him about them?” the professor asked, receiving a nod from the short blond teen. 

“Well, Eren…” Hanji sighed slightly, “I have no idea… I trust everyone here who knows about the merman, so it’s weird how it could have slipped out…” 

“You mean… You think they know about Levi?” Eren’s eyes grew wide, “Does Levi know about this?” 

“I have no idea whether they know about him or not,” the professor admitted as she started pacing around, “But… We should be careful. They’ve been seen on the school grounds since your accident the other day, and Marco said they had been stalking him on his way home from school, too…” 

“How many are they?” Eren looked at Hanji, who was still pacing around. He realized, that it didn’t look like she had been able to sleep for quite some days, with heavy bags visible under her usually joyful eyes. 

“I’ve seen four of them, three men and one woman, I don’t know if they’re more…” Hanji explained with a sigh, “Maybe… We should think about moving Levi to a safer place?” 

“But… Where?” Eren frowned.


	13. Green Emeralds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Huehuehue... HUEHUEHUEHUE... *cruel snickering*  
> This chappie is a little longer than usual... Enjoy!

“So… What’s the plan?” Eren said, rubbing his eyes a little bit as he was quite sure he didn’t hear what Hanji just said, because it was insane. 

“Since the suits have been here the last couple of days, and apparently know where all of us live by now, apart from you, Eren…” Hanji said, crossing her arms over her chest, “We’ll move Levi to a safer place - your house.”

“That’s nuts,” Eren quickly said, “He’ll never get past Mikasa, she doesn’t even know about Levi, and she’ll surely not like it…” 

“Come on, Eren! It’s either that or Levi gets taken to some creepy experiment lab, where scary scientists will test him every second of his life!” Armin said, his big, blue eyes pleading Eren to understand and maybe listen to him. It wasn’t like Levi would be living a life much different from now, but still… 

“Again… How will we do this? Let him live in my bathtub or something?” Eren almost laughed at how silly it sounded, “We don’t even have a swimming pool like Marco does, so why—…” 

“Because Levi likes you,” Hanji said, shutting Eren up that very instant, “Besides, I’m sure if some creepy, mysterious people in suits were wandering around your house or garden, Mikasa would surely notice it and chase them away, one way or another.” 

Hanji was right about that… Mikasa didn’t like strangers, and she surely didn’t trust strangers either. 

She was actually a lot like Levi.

“F-Fine…” Eren sighed heavily, tugging a little bit at his green hoodie, “How should we get Levi moved, then? How long can he be out of water?” 

“We—… Didn’t exactly test that yet,” Hanji raised an eyebrow, “It might be a good idea to know… We probably wont be able to move him to your house until it’s dark outside though.” 

“So… Should I give it a try?” Eren suggested, “I mean… He trusts me, I guess?” 

“Yes, please do so, Eren,” Hanji nodded, “Meanwhile, I’ll speak with Mike and Nanaba about how to move Levi to a safer location.” She smiled widely, thankful that Eren was interested in helping the merman, though she knew that it was a risky project by now. 

“I’ll see you at Levi’s aquarium later!” She turned around on her heel and disappeared down the hallway, leaving Eren and Armin all by themselves. 

So now was the time to see Levi for the first time since he saved Eren from drowning, and Eren wasn’t quite sure how to feel about it. He was worried that Levi would… Hate him, for some reason, because of Eren’s own stupidity. 

“Let’s go, Armin,” Eren said just before inhaling and exhaling slowly, mentally preparing himself to meet Levi once again while they walked down the long hallway to the aquarium at the end, where Levi would be, waiting. According to Hanji, he changed his appearance back to the more frightening one - the one he had when they first found him, so it seemed that he really didn’t trust anyone but Eren enough to let them see his real face. 

His even more beautiful face, that might or might not make Eren’s heart beat a little bit faster. 

“This is it,” Armin hummed quietly as Eren stopped at the doors leading to Levi’s aquarium. He hesitated at bit before running his access card through the scanner at the door, entering his own, personal password, before the sound of a beep was heard and the doors finally opened for him. He stepped inside only to see the familiar scenery, the room being completely dark, with the only light coming from the aquarium in the middle of the room - where Levi lied on the bottom of it, fast asleep in his scaly, scary appearance. 

He really had changed his appearance back, it seemed… 

“Eren, are you alright?” Armin asked quietly, watching the sleeping merman as he spoke.

Eren bit his lower lip as he felt something tightening in his chest, some sort of longing - a longing to see the merman again, to speak with him once again. The feeling of a longing was, however, mixed with one of fright.

He clenched his hands into fists as he slowly made his way towards the platform, where he would always sit and watch Levi, while the merman would swim around, minding his own business and sometimes come with some rude remarks towards Eren, just to piss him off - apparently the merman seemed to like pissing Eren off - but Eren didn’t really mind when Levi did, to be honest. 

Armin watched Eren from the doorway, not saying a single word while the teen sat down at the end of the platform, his wary, green eyes looking down into the water and watching Levi at the bottom of the aquarium. It wasn’t the Levi he knew and had bonded with - his scaly skin, razor teeth and sharp claws were something that almost scared Eren - those were things that had once tried to kill him.

The brown haired teen exchanged a few looks with Armin, before he let out a deep, shaky breath he had been holding for too long. 

“… L-Levi? You awake?” Eren saw how the merman’s scaly ears immediately perked up at his voice, almost as if he had just been waiting to hear it. Levi turned around underwater and met Eren’s surprised eyes with his own black ones through the now rippled surface of the water. Eren smiled faintly at the merman’s reaction and decided to move himself closer to the edge of the platform, which almost seemed to startle the merman, who looked completely terrified, even through the layer of blue scales on his skin, his black eyes and sharp teeth. 

He didn’t even move closer to Eren, he didn’t dare come to the surface to meet him, like he always did. 

He barely moved, but just kept watching the teen above him. 

“Levi?” Eren called carefully, frowning his eyebrows a little bit in worry, “Levi, why… Why wont you come and say hi, like you always do?” 

There was no reply from the merman who gritted his teeth and forced himself to look away from the teen in what would seem to be shame. 

Was the merman ashamed, because of what happened a few days earlier? 

“Levi, come on,” Eren sighed a little bit as he decided to reach down towards the cold water, letting his fingertips break the now almost once more still surface of the water. The teen watched the small waves his fingers created, smiling as he did so, even. 

“Huh?” Eren almost gasped as he realized that Levi had started to move - fast. His scales being pulled back under his skin, his teeth and claws retracting - and his black eyes turning back into those beautiful, beautiful diamond orbs once again. 

“Levi-…” Eren managed to breathe out before he felt his hand being grabbed by the merman, who had managed to pull himself up onto the platform and shoving Eren down on his back in the process. 

“Don’t fall in!!” the merman exclaimed as he sat in front of him, almost leaning over him to make sure he stayed down, as his face and gray eyes showed clear worry, “Eren…” He almost breathed the name before looking away from Eren’s face in what would seem to be shame. His scaly ears even started to somewhat droop down in sadness, in sorry. 

“Levi,” Eren sighed slightly as Levi finally let go of his hand holding him down, still sitting somewhat in front of him without saying anything. 

“I’m sorry,” Levi muttered, a slight frown on his face, “You almost… Drowned, because of me…”

“That… Wasn’t your fault,” Eren sighed, and before he knew of it, he saw Armin leaving the room from the corner of his eye, leaving the two of them alone. Maybe Armin just wanted to make sure Levi didn’t hurt him? Who knew…

“It was…” Levi muttered, still not looking at Eren. He obviously felt very guilty about what happened, even if it wasn’t Levi’s fault - it had just been a big misunderstanding which led to the accident. 

“No, Levi,” Eren said as he grabbed Levi’s chin and turned his face towards his own, “It wasn’t your fault, okay? No one blames you, you… You saved me, for fuck’s sake!” 

“E-Eren…” Levi barely muttered, his gray eyes wide in shock, feeling a loss for words, so he just kept his mouth shut. 

“Hell,” Eren continued, “You could have killed me, just like you threatened to the first day we met… But you didn’t!” Eren was angry, upset, but it wasn’t because of Levi, it was… Because of himself, because he seemed to have made Levi worried because of his stupid actions. 

“I-… I just don’t want to lose anyone again,” Levi managed to breathe out, his eyes darting away from Eren’s, “I thought you drowned… And then when that professor of yours assured me that you were alright… I was scared…” 

“Scared?” Eren froze a little bit, trying to calm himself down again. Eren was the one who had been scared all day to see Levi, right? 

“You… You didn’t come to see me,” Levi sighed, his scaly fin ears drooping even lower, “I thought you didn’t want to see me anymore…” The almost constant frown on Levi’s face seemed to have softened ever so slightly as he seemed to be stuck in thought for a few seconds. Levi didn’t know what to say, for the first time in his life, he actually felt powerless. There was something about Eren that seemed so… Different from other people. Something he couldn’t put words on, but it was definitely something he liked. 

The last couple of days without Eren had been hell for Levi. He had honestly missed the human more than he thought ever possible, and somehow he had been feeling so… Weak, lonely and sad. 

“I was hurt so I wasn’t allowed to come, even though I really wanted to!” Eren reassured Levi, and the teen’s words made Levi stare back at him in shock. 

Eren actually wanted to come and see Levi? And he didn’t just think it was some kind of sick, annoying task he had?

Levi looked down in shame again,his hand loosening around Eren’s until their hands only rested upon each other. Eren looked at him, worry filling his face as he spoke. 

“Levi it wasn’t your fault… It was just a misunderstanding, an accident.. If anything you probably saved me from drowning..” His voice quivered slightly when he looked at the defeated merman whose skin seemed to have lost its inner glow, his tail now looking dull and sickly compared to the last time they met. Back then there had been life behind the merman’s eyes and his tail has shone almost as if the whole sea was within it. 

“Eren I… I’m sorry I-“ Levi began but Eren angrily cut him off, hoisting himself on the platform with an angry huff. 

“No! Stop saying sorry for something that was not your fault! Stop thinking it was your fault when it was not! It was my fault and an accident I should have known better I shou-“

He was abruptly cut off when Levi crushed their lips together, his cold hand now holding onto Eren’s as if his life depended on it.

Eren didn’t dare to even think before he wrapped his arms around the cold, wet waist of the other, pulling him almost painfully close, letting their chests press against the other’s while their lips were kept connected in a heated, almost desperate, kiss. 

Eren could taste the whole ocean in the kiss. The salty water, the sunny beaches and the blue skies. It was all caught between their lips.

Levi’s hands found their way around Eren’s shoulders, his nails almost clenching into the fabric of Eren’s green hoodie, enjoying the taste of the human’s lips - the first lips of a human he had ever tasted, and God it tasted amazing. It was metallic, yet fleshy and soft, even if the teen’s lips were a tiny bit dry. 

“Levi,” Eren breathed out between their lips as they finally parted, almost gasping for air, Levi sitting in Eren’s lap, with the tip of his tail in the water still. 

“What-… What was that for?” Eren asked, still feeling light-headed after the loss of air. He didn’t even know whether kissing the merman was the right thing to do or not, but it just seemed right at the very moment, even if it was very sudden… 

“Too sudden?” Levi asked with a hint of a smirk on his lips, and Eren could suddenly recognize him once again - that smug behavior of his… 

“Y-Yeah?!” Eren exclaimed, but was caught off-guard as something strange happened… 

Right there, in front of him, in the light of the moon shining through the windows in the ceiling - something happened, and the teenager just sat and watched in awe, watched in awe as the blue, sapphire scales of Levi’s tail changed color, one by one like a wave across his tail, into what would seem like the color of green emeralds, with the hint of something golden between the very scales.

“L-Levi, your tail…?!” Eren said, a little bit too loud perhaps. 

“Oh… Look at that…” Levi said, almost as if he knew this would happen, as if he had a feeling it was actually going to happen.

Why was it happening, even? 

Even the fins on Levi’s ears changed color to the emerald green one, and the merman, who was taking all of this in very well, was caught staring into Eren’s beautiful eyes for a few seconds, as if he was examining them?

“Levi, tell me what’s going on…” Eren almost begged, “You’re… Scaring me…” Eren suddenly wished that he could move away from the merman, but he was still positioned in his lap, holding him down and in place. 

“Oh, this?” Levi said, pointing at the fins on his ears which were green and golden by now, “Say, doesn’t this color seem familiar to you, Eren?” 

“E-Eh…?” Eren stuttered, blinking a few times in confusion, “Familiar?” 

“Hah,” Levi smirked, flashing a few sharp teeth at the teenager, “Seems that your professor doesn’t know everything about merpeople, huh?” 

“Huh?!” 

“Mmh, never mind it,” Levi almost hummed as he pulled himself off Eren’s lap, looking back at the teen with the widest smirk on his lips, like some sort of tease, “It’s a secret only I know…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HUEHUEHUE... I'M EXCITED ABOUT WHAT YOU'VE ALL GOT TO SAY ABOUT THIS CHAPPIE.


	14. Escaping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hanji interrupts the lovebirds, and Levi have to leave the bvui

Eren was confused. He didn’t understand why Levi’s tail had suddenly changed color, he didn’t understand how either, but it was truly fascinating. The scales were beautiful, just as beautiful as the blue ones he used to have, and Eren had such a strong urge to actually touch them, but he would have to control his hands, unless he wanted to risk having his hands bitten off. 

“What’s wrong, Eren?” Levi asked, that smug smirk still on his thin lips as he spoke, “Catfish got your tongue?” 

“Eh? Oh, no…” Eren quietly said as he did his very best to look away from the merman’s tail, “Just… You kissed me…” 

“Hooh? Have you never kissed anyone before?” Levi asked while he started examining his nails, not really being too interested in the conversation - he actually didn’t seem affected by the fact that the two of them had just kissed. 

“I—… Yes, well…” Eren frowned a little bit, “But that still doesn’t explain why you kissed me!” 

“You wanna try again?” Levi asked, shooting Eren a quick glare which made the teenager have his words stuck in his throat. The merman’s suggestion was tempting, too tempting for Eren to handle, and he knew that it was wrong of him to even want to kiss the merman…

“Eren!” someone called, making Eren look over his shoulder to meet the face of Professor Hanji, who had just entered the room. She looked around her, making sure the three of them were alone. Levi, however, bared his teeth at her as she came closer, his scaly fin ears being pulled back like the ones of a hissing cat. Eren was a bit taken aback by the merman’s behavior, but on the other hand; it wasn’t much of a surprise, really. He knew that Levi didn’t trust anyone but him, for some odd reason that he didn’t quite understand. 

“What’s going on, Professor?” Eren asked as the woman stopped her movements, a small sigh leaving her lips as she took her glasses off and wiped them in her long, white coat. 

“We’re having a problem,” Hanji admitted, looking down, “We have to move Levi tonight, but…” 

“Move me?!” Levi quickly said, looking at Eren with wide, confused eyes, “Why—… Why do you have to move me? And where to?!” 

“Ah, Levi…” Eren said quietly, realizing he hadn’t told Levi about the plan just yet, so he sent the merman an apologetic smile as he awkwardly started fixing his brown, messy hair, “We talked about moving you to a safer location, since some people are getting suspicious… So you’re coming home with me.” 

“Hooh…?” the merman glared at Eren, “What if I refuse?” 

“Do you?” Eren asked, “It’s either my house, or you risking becoming a test subject for the government, and trust me; that’s not very nice.” 

“Anyway,” Hanji interrupted them, making Eren and Levi tear their gazes from the other’s and face the professor, who had now placed her glasses back onto her nose, “The suits are, in fact, watching this building right now, so we wont be able to move Levi in one of our tankers, since it would be way too remarkable, so we need to know for how long he can be out of water…” 

“I’ve never been out of water for very long…” Levi quietly admitted, only loud enough for Eren to hear as the merman looked away from Hanji, who hadn’t paid the merman much attention until now. 

“Eeehh?! His scales changed their color?!” 

_Here we go…_

And in an instant, she was running up the stairs to the platform, being greeted by a furious, hissing merman. Levi slowly backed away, back towards the water as Hanji dared to come closer to him. Eren just quickly took Levi’s hand in his own and tried to make the merman look at him instead of Hanji. 

“Levi!” Eren said, looking at the merman with a pair of sad eyes, “It’s alright, she wont hurt you, I promise…” He knew, that he would have to make Levi somewhat trust Hanji and the others if they wanted to succeed in transferring him to Eren’s house. If Levi didn’t trust them, then he certainly wouldn’t trust them to get into Mike’s car, something he had never even seen before in his life! 

“Ere—…” Levi said, freezing completely in place as his eyes met the teenager’s, and a feeling of trust and safety washed over him. His heart calmed down, yet started beating in an unstoppable way whenever he looked at Eren, and he didn’t know what to do about it - he didn’t even know if he actually wanted to stop that feeling, because he somewhat liked it… 

“Alright,” Levi said carefully, exhaling deeply as he tried to relax now that he was in Eren’s presence.

Eren could always make him calm. 

“This is so fascinating!” Hanji exclaimed, breaking the silence that had just occurred between the merman and the teenager. The professor was on her all fours, crawling closer to Levi as she examined the now green scales of the tail, a wide grin on her lips - a grin so wide it was almost creepy - and as her glasses shone in the moonlight, it just added to her craziness. 

“This is so ama—…” Hanji stopped speaking all of a sudden as her eyes flew from Levi’s beautiful tail, to Eren’s face - her brown eyes growing wide in what seemed to be realization. 

“Oh… The more you know,” she just said, pulling away from the two still sitting on the platform. 

“Eh? The more you know?!” Eren just repeated in confusion, being completely oblivious. 

“Anyway,” Hanji turned her eyes to look at Levi, “Say, Levi… How long can you stay out of water?” 

“I—…” Levi frowned a little bit, looking away, “I think I’ll be okay… I can breathe above water, just like underwater, so it’s not like I need it constantly…” 

“I see,” Hanji said as she stood again, “Then… It’s settled! We’re leaving this building with Levi!” 

“Wait—… Now?!” Eren exclaimed with his eyes wide in shock, “But… Professor! Mikasa doesn’t know about this!”

“She’ll know soon enough when you stand in the doorway with a merman in your arms, Eren,” Hanji assured him, “It’s not like she’ll kill hi—… Okay, never mind…” 

“Professor!!!” 

“Yes, yes… Meet me at the back in ten minutes!” 

And that’s pretty much how it went…

 

“Eren, watch out!” Hanji exclaimed as Eren walked down the stairs from the platform, with a slippery merman in his arms, who just glared at the people around him, not trusting a single one, apart from Eren, who could have sworn he just heard Levi hiss at

Armin, because he kept looking at the merman. 

“Levi,” Eren sighed, earning an angry glare from the merman. 

“Where are we going, again?” Levi asked quietly, “And why? I’ve just started to tolerate my aquarium.” 

“You’re… Coming home with me, Levi,” Eren sighed, “I can’t believe we’re doing this, but it’s for your own safety…” 

“Hooh? I’m going home with you?” Levi smirked, “But we haven’t even been on our first date yet?” 

Eren swore for a second that he was about to trip when the merman said that. 

… Did merpeople even date?

“Levi—…” Eren groaned in frustration before turning to look at Hanji on his way out through the back door, which could only be opened from the inside of the building, “Do I really have to live with this…?”

“Yes,” Hanji nodded as she led the way outside to Mike’s car, “It’s for the better, trust me, Eren.” 

“Yeah, but…” Eren looked a little bit down as he remembered he still hadn’t told Mikasa. Hopefully she had gone to bed already, so Eren wouldn’t have to explain himself in the middle of the night, but she would surely be pissed in the morning. 

“In he goes,” Hanji hummed as she opened the door to Mike’s car for Eren who frowned a little bit. 

“But he’s still soaking wet,” he protested. 

“Yeah, no thanks to you,” Levi remarked. 

“It’s alright, really,” Hanji assured Eren, “We just have to hurry before those suits find us…” 

“Understood,” Eren nodded before he put Levi inside the car, having a little bit of trouble trying to fit his long, green fish tail inside the car, but he eventually succeeded by letting some of the merman’s tail rest on the backseat, taking most of the space, so Eren (who would be sitting next to him) had to sit with the tip of the slimy, wet fish tail in his lap. 

Great. 

“What is this thing even,” Levi muttered quietly for himself, frowning at the look of the car - it wasn’t exactly the most clean car, with what seemed like dog hairs everywhere on the seats - apparently Mike owned five, huge dogs. 

“Here’s a blanket, put it over him and his tail, so it doesn’t seem too suspicious,” Hanji handed Eren a fuzzy, black blanket to use. The teenager gave his professor a nod before he started wrapping it around Levi’s tail and some of his stomach and chest, since some of his fish scales were visible there as well. 

“Oi,” Levi protested with a slight frown on his face, “What the hell…” 

“S-Sorry,” Eren said, not meeting Levi’s eyes as he knew the merman didn’t exactly like being touched this much - not even by Eren. 

“Tch,” Levi clicked his tongue, “How far is there back to you?” 

“Not that far, it’ll only take a few minutes,” Eren assured the merman while Hanji and Mike got into the car as well, sitting in the driver’s seat and front seat. 

“I see…” Levi huffed. Eren could easily sense that Levi wasn’t satisfied with the whole situation, but there wasn’t much he could do to help him, really. After those words, there was an awkward silence in the car, not even a single snarky remark from the merman. As the car started to move, he did gasp quietly in surprise, but he muffled it by keeping his lips shut while he looked out the window in fascination. 

Eren couldn’t really help but smile a little at that. 

Levi was kinda cute like that; overly excited and fascinated, yet confused by the human technology which he didn’t understand. 

“Uh-oh…” Hanji muttered quietly, “We got problems…” 

“What?” Eren asked, stretching his body a little bit so he could see Hanji in the front seat. 

“Someone’s following us…” Mike mumbled quietly as he had realized it as well. 

“It’s surely those black suits, I bet it is!!” Hanji almost growled in frustration, “We need to shake them off! They can’t know where Eren lives!”

“What’s… Going on, Eren?” Levi asked carefully, poking Eren’s shoulder in order to get his attention. The teenager, however, just swallowed thickly, feeling nervous and not knowing how to tell Levi. 

“It’s… Uh…” Eren started as he leaned back in his seat again, trying to do his best not to look Levi in the eyes, “Someone’s… Trying to capture you…” 

“I’ve already been captured, if you weren’t aware,” Levi growled lowly, shooting Hanji a short glare from the corner of his eyes. 

“Well, these people don’t seem as friendly as we are… They’ll most likely never let you go back to the ocean ever again,” Eren said as he finally turned to look at Levi who grew quiet - for once. His eyes even showed clear signs of fright, something Eren hadn’t seen in them before, and it made his heart hurt for some reason. 

“Don’t worry, Levi,” Eren assured him, “I’ll protect you, I promise!” 

Levi gave a small nod, not looking away from Eren’s eyes, “I don’t… I don’t want to be stranded on the surface for the rest of my life…” 

“You wont,” Eren said with a calming voice, taking Levi’s - almost dry - hands into his own while he looked him in the eyes. 

“Aww… Cute lovebirds…” Hanji hummed to herself, leaning back in her seat. She looked in the back mirror and realized, that this drive might take longer than planned… Even if Mike did his best at shaking the suits off.


End file.
